Truth

'Beware, your sin will find you out!' - Paraphrase of Numbers 32:23

I cannot count how many times I heard that from my dad growing up.  He always had a verse from the Bible to back up what he was admonishing me about, and that one was for the stuff I had done that he hadn't found out about yet!

The older I get though, the more I realize just how wise my dad is.  And it's not just knowledge about the Bible.  It's common sense stuff, too.  I hope I have that good of a head on my shoulders when I'm his age.  He was right to quote that to me, it resounds in my head every time I do something wrong.  He's reminding me subconsciously that even if I think I got away with it (like cutting the cat's whiskers with scissors), I really haven't.  Even if someone on earth never knows what I've done, God knows.

As I was reading in 2 Corinthians 13 this morning, my dad popped into my head again.  Paul is telling the church in verse 8, 

"For we cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth."

The truth always comes out, always wins, always rises to the top of whatever situation.  Paul is reminding me that honesty really is the best policy.  What's harder to remember?  The truth or a lie?

Or a lie that covered up a lie that you told the other day to protect another lie you told last week which was really just a rearranging of the details to cover someone else who lied for you two years ago to cover up something you did and just now had to lie about again because the first lie was told and if you told the truth now then the first lie would have been a waste of time because then everyone would know that it was really a lie?

Who wants to live like that?!  How much harder is it to just tell the truth?  You have to live with the consequences of either decision, except that if you tell the truth then the consequences are over with a lot sooner...