The True and the False

We all want to be known as smart and good, don’t we? We don’t like people making fun of us or telling the things we do wrong. When someone likes us, or admires the things we can do, we feel important. So lots of times we try to behave good just to get good things, and for others to think well of us. Right?

Do you know that is how most lying starts? Something happens that we don’t want to tell the truth about. Why? Because we are afraid of what others will think or say. We won’t look good or smart anymore, so we better hide it. We might get punished, and that is not a good thing at all. Better find a way to get out of it, quick! Blame someone else or think up “a story.” Whether it is a white lie or a black lie, it doesn’t really matter. A lie is a lie: something that is not true. It is a crumbling brick that won’t last.

One lie usually leads to another unless we humble down and confess it. Humbling down is like giving up all the thoughts of looking good and feeling smart. It is telling what we really said and what we’re really like. It is hard, but it is the right thing to do. It is building a strong house on a rock—a straight, good brick. It takes work and so it often seems better to tell a lie.

But do you know that covering up your wrong deeds is really hardest in the end? It is. First you have all those nervous feelings of “What if they find out?” Then you are guilty, but keep telling lies because you know you are doing wrong. And you won’t feel any better until you do right, so you are miserable. What a sad place to be!

Like Rosie, we are each building houses—houses that will crash, or houses that will last. We all want the lasting kind, but false houses are being built all the time. Why? Because it seems easier and like the best way to “look good.” You know it isn’t though, and so that is false. The truth is that the easiest and best way to live is to have Jesus be your builder and make your house strong and good. Not the kind of good you keep trying to have, but the real kind, when He gives you a clean heart to do right. That’s the truth.