The following is a fictional scenario designed to illustrate a point about truth...
Taking the subway home late one night after night class, Sandy was surprised to see her neighbor - Jeremy in the car ahead holding hands with an unknown girl and quite affectionate in his behavior. They were not only neighbors but she was also friends with him and his wife Jeanine and often enjoyed patio time together on many a summer evening.
What should she do? Should she just pretend that this never happened – after all it is no business of hers.
Should she call her friend, Jeanine and tell her that her husband was spending time with another girl on the side?
What a story… Should she leave out some details and add a few of her own? Quite the dilemma…but definitely fertile ground for gossip or a sensational story.
Having had just a glimpse of the event, Sandy did not have the full picture. Was she looking at a pair of friends sharing a moment or lovers? Was she jumping to her own conclusions based on how she would have behaved?
We all have had similar experiences where we need to need to think of the action we should take. It is really important to note that nothing can break trust faster than finding out that a loved one has not been honest with you. One might argue that in some cases, not telling the complete truth is protecting that person. But think…is that just taking the easier way out? Or are you seeking to set a stage to showcase yourself and your story?
One also has to be aware of the tendency to meddle – definitely not an attribute that one wants attached to self.
Ask yourself if shading the truth or providing a condensed version of the truth with key elements removed or twisted makes it better? After all you are not really telling a lie – there is some truth in your story.
When people decide you can’t be trusted, they’ll treat you with caution or even rejection, not friendship. Every untruth, hurts not only the person being told but it also hurts the one who tells it.
Eventually, others will catch on to a person’s tendency to lie—and when they do, they will label that person as untrustworthy. When people decide you can’t be trusted, they’ll treat you with caution or even rejection, not friendship.
It takes courage to tell the truth and to not provide shades of what is. It also takes courage to not meddle. Think first; let your soul speak to you and know when you should speak up and when you should not. Be reminded that “A truth that's told with bad intent beats all the lies you can invent."--William Blake
…and some more wise sayings to inspire you to tell the truth with good intent…
Never be afraid to raise your voice for honesty and truth and compassion against injustice and lying and greed. If people all over the world would do this, it would change the earth.
--William Faulkner
Honesty is more than not lying. It is truth telling, truth speaking, truth living, and truth loving.
--James E. Faust
It is an occupational hazard that anyone who has spent her life learning how to lie eventually becomes bad at telling the truth.
--Hussein Nishah
The Five Levels of Truth-Telling: First, you tell the truth to yourself about yourself. Then you tell the truth to yourself about another. At the third level, you tell the truth about yourself to another. Then you tell your truth about another to that other. And finally, you tell the truth to everyone about everything.
Neale Donald Walsch
If you tell the truth you don't have to remember anything.
--Mark Twain
Read More: When to Lie - When to tell the Truth
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