I have just found a 365 day writing prompt challenge from the Editors at WordPress, and I thought I’d embark. I’m not sure exactly what kinds of questions or prompts are on here but I’m going to do my best to answer them all, being as brutally honest as possible, something I just haven’t done much of here, on All Out War. As I’ve said before, that’s actually why I started this blog, for a kind of soul therapy of sorts, but just couldn’t do it.
I haven’t looked backwards or ahead, simply scrolled down for today’s prompt and it was this:
“What was the last lie you told? Why did you tell it?”
I don’t lie. It’s one of the strictest codes I enforce on myself and it’s been ridiculed by people I’m close to as well as by coworkers at places I’ve worked, when – believe it or not – I was asked to lie 🙂
True, there are little white lies in this world, but I try not to be a part of any of that, nor any situations where I would find myself having to tell them or depend on them. For any reason. It’s not that I’m trying to play the “holier than thou” card, or anything like that. It’s just that I have a deeper relationship with God than would allow me to indulge in such things as He has forbidden. In the Ten Commandments none the less.
And yes, there is debate upon debate about whether or not we are to adhere to Old Testament commandments. It’s true there are some that don’t seem to be feasible in this day and age, and others that seem outright crazy to just read them off. But I’m not here to debate or to try to push any of my own personal beliefs on anyone else. You have your own personal relationship with God and it is for you and you alone to work that relationship out with Him. Paul said this himself: Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Philippians 2:12
But HAVE I lied? Yes. I have. I have done a lot of things I’m not happy to say that I’ve done and that forgiveness, I’ve also had to work out between me and God. That’s why I also try my hardest not to judge anyone, no matter what they’re going through or what they’ve done. How dare I judge anyone because they sin differently than I have?
So what was the last lie I told? Why, it’s the one I always tell… “I’m fine…”
Someone once asked the hypothetical question, I wonder why people say I’m fine instead of just saying what’s really on their mind? And I think the answer was that, in most cases, when someone asks “How are you?” they aren’t really inquiring as to your present state of being. It’s more often a trivial way of being cordial, or being friendly, or simply finding words to fill a void that might otherwise be there.
Really – who asks “How are you?” and wouldn’t mind standing there for fifteen minutes or so, hearing about how their spouse is thus and so, and the kids are just a mess, and the job is going horribly and the hairdresser didn’t listen to a thing I said…. and on and on? Asking how someone is doing is usually just a way of being nice and then moving on. It’s the unspoken code of life for most people.
My husband, on the other hand, has a completely different way of answering, and I have to say, it made me jealous to think why I hadn’t answered that way myself. When someone asks how he’s doing, he simply smiles and says, “Better than I deserve.”
AH! And how true! What a way to answer, and NOT lie! This is what I want to say, but it rarely ever sits on the tip of my tongue as it does for him. Maybe one day I’ll train myself. Because truly, aren’t we ALL doing better than we deserve? I mean, if the wages of sin were payable immediately, I think we’d all be in trouble. So, indeed, THANK GOD that I am, and always have, done better than I deserve!
The second half of the question in the prompt asked why I told the lie. And I think, pretty much, I summed that up in the above banter. Because, in much the same way that the person who asks “How are you?” isn’t really expecting an honest answer, so then I, in answering “I’m fine.”, don’t wish to divulge all the minuscule travesties that I might have been through up to that point.
Again, it’s a courtesy thing.
As always, thank you so much for stopping by, and I hope that you come again!
I’m going to put these prompt writings in their own little category, and if you’d like to join with me, just look at the top of my blog page and click on “How To Get In Touch With Me”. If you send me a message and your email, I’ll gladly send you the pdf containing all the prompts. Or, you could simply write about what I’ve written about on any given day. 🙂 I’ll always put the prompt at the beginning of the blog and use the title as my own title.
Have a blessed day!
All Out War! 