Has anyone ever told you a lie?  How did it make you feel when it was proven to be untrue?  Surprised?  Confused?  Or maybe you thought they were just joking, even if you didn’t find it funny. Whenever a person lies to you, doesn’t it make you feel  betrayed or at the very least uncomfortable with him or her?  Can you trust this person after this happens?

Trust is very important to me.  If I am lied to, I take it as a sign of disrespect, to say the least.  Depending upon the situation, it can even be much worse than that.  The truth always matters.  Always.

Now this doesn’t mean that a person won’t say something untruthful or misleading once in a while. What I mean is that sometimes a person doesn’t know the whole truth. But, if it is heard by word of mouth from someone they know and trust who believes it to be true, it can be shared and hurt someone’s reputation.

There are habitual, even pathological liars. If a person lies on a regular basis, that person is untrustworthy, regardless of the reason why they do it.  A person who behaves in this way is incapable of being a true friend.  One cannot truly care about another person, if truth is not a “given” in the relationship. This is especially harmful if a “so-called friend” spreads rumors about him or her.

A lie is not a joke or an excuse.  Before a person is sworn in as a witness in a trial, they must promise to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.  A lie in that situation is breaking the law. So, telling a lie is a betrayal to a friend, a breach of confidence or “libel” in the law, and a sin in religions and faiths.  Lying is just, plain WRONG!  No more needs to be said.