When someone tells a lie, how many times have we heard this phrase? Of course knowing what it means its never enough for my inquisitive mind and I found out where this phrase originated.  It is believed that in 1810, William Blake wrote a poem called “ The Liar”. The original phrase reads as follows:

“Deceiver, dissembler

Why do people lie?

There are several reasons that I can think why people lie:

• Fear- People lie to hide an act or event that causes shame or guilt, and want to avoid consequences.
• Manipulation- People lie to obtain a gain from others or a situation
• Alleged Protection- People lie because they think that the information they have may hurt other people’s feelings and they think that by lying they are protecting the person.
• Shift Responsibility- When people don’t want to assume responsibility for a task, action or information they displace the accountability to others.

 

There are three basic kinds of lies, either implicit lies, embellishing facts or omission lies. Lies have no color. There’s no such thing as “white” lies. People have the tendency to think that if the impact of the lie is minimal that it will not have a true effect on the involved parties. The problem with lies is that they never travel alone.

Effects of lies:

• Snowball Once a lie has been told you have to continue to lie to cover the other lie.
• Broken integrity- Once you start lying and getting away with it, the tendency is to continue to lie
• Loss of relationships- Once caught in a lie you would experience distrust from those lied to. Meaningful relationships, jobs and more can be lost through lies.
• Freedom- It is illegal to lie to authorities and yes, if the lie is pertinent enough you can end up in jail.
• Reverse effect- Those who lie to prevent punishment can end up with even worse consequences for the actions due to their lack of honestly.

What does the Word tells us about lies?: Here are just a few:

• Psalm 34:13
  keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking lies.
• Proverbs 19:5
  A false witness will not go unpunished, and he who pours out lies will not go free.
• 1 Kings 9:4
  “As for you, if you walk before me in integrity of heart and uprightness, as David your father did, and do all I command and observe my decrees and laws,
• Proverbs 10:9
  The man of integrity walks securely, but he who takes crooked paths will be found out.

Choose to live in righteousness, telling the truth it easier as it doesn’t require further explanations. Lies truly don’t protect anyone, including children. Eventually the truth comes out and they resent being lied to. Telling the truth doesn’t mean rudeness and lack of tact there are ways of telling the truth in love.  Let’s learn that art together.

Blessings

Naty