After an unsuspecting wife found a small piece of paper with the name “Mary Lou” on it, she became angry.  Hitting her husband over the head with a frying pan he asked, “What was that for?”  His wife replied, “I found this paper with the name Mary Lou on it in your pants pocket this morning while doing the wash.  What do you have to say for yourself?”   Quickly her husband said, “Oh, I was at the race track last week and that was the name of the horse I bet on.”  To her embarrassment his wife apologized for jumping to conclusions and not trusting her husband.  About a week later she found her husband sitting at the computer and whaled him once again, but this time with a cast iron skillet knocking him out cold. When he became conscious he asked, “AND WHAT WAS THAT FOR THIS TIME?”  His wife with fire in her eyes said, “Your horse called!”

Jeremiah wrote that…  “The heart is deceitful above all things…who can understand it?”  Then God said, “I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind…”  (Jeremiah 17: 9, 10)  We are told that people lie so often today that they have trouble differentiating between a lie and the truth.  Jeremiah tells us that our hearts are deceitful in their sinful condition, but that God takes the time to personally check our heart and examine our mind.  If He sat down with you today, would He locate any deceitfulness?  What’s at stake – only your character, your integrity, your word, your reputation and your legacy?  A lie to your spouse or anyone else takes seconds to produce, but it could take much longer to straighten out down the road.  The next time you are not completely honest try this:  As soon as the Holy Spirit reveals to you the deception, apologize and straighten it out right then and there, don’t wait.  You won’t regret it.  The slight and brief embarrassment is worth gaining the long term effects of speaking the truth.