Lying is hard to defeat

[WilT]

I have found that lying regularly is a habit we must restrain from. I believe if one lies regularly a door of evil remains open and other sins become easier to do. Has anyone attempted to defeat it? What has been your experience?

 

[Bob_Crowley]

I have found that lying regularly is a habit we must restrain from. I believe if one lies regularly a door of evil remains open and other sins become easier to do. Has anyone attempted to defeat it? What has been your experience?

I suspect just about everyone has told lies at some time, even if they’ve been “little white lies”, to say nothing of politicians.

I think it was the American politician Adlai Stevenson who quipped “Lying is an abomination before the Lord … but a very present help in trouble!”

However I remember my old pastor saying that he sometimes wondered if there was salvation for conmen. He was a prison chaplain for a while and he said you could sit down on one side of the desk in the office, with one of these conmen sitting on the other side, and they’d just about sell you the shoes off your own feet.

But he thought they told so many lies that after a while they didn’t know what the truth was themselves. Once a person gets to that point, I think there’s only one possibility for their eternity.

There’s a certain conman who’s quite well known over here, and every time he gets out of prison, it’s only a matter of time before he’s back on another charge. I don’t think he knows how to tell the truth any more.

 

[Cricket2]

I have to say I have been blessed with the inability to lie to any degree. I can tell a “white lie” (barely) in order to arrange a surprise party for someone. But aside from that, I can’t. My grandmother used to joke with me about it, and tell people that there was one sure thing about me: “You just can’t lie.”

Apparently, even when trying the “white lie” I turn so red in the face that I look like I might explode, I start to stutter and nearly stop breathing. No need for a lie detector on my part. I have a built in one.

I think lying is a habit. Someone lies as a kid and people don’t catch it, or don’t correct it. So kid tries again, and again…and after a few shots of it working they figure it can’t hurt. We we taught that lying was dead wrong. If we did something wrong we were expected to speak up and tell the truth. We might be in trouble but no where near as bad if we tried to hide our mistake or misbehavior! So for me, it was a matter of learning that the truth was always better than lying.

This has been my life habit. Even in a work situation that might mean getting fired I would never lie. If I made a serious mistake I immediately told the boss. It always worked out for the best. People need to fall in love with the truth and lying won’t be so easy or practiced.

 

[wmw]

As sly as a fox, but innocent as a dove. I’ve used lies to protect others and to answer improper questions to not reveal information that is none of their business. White lies truly can be pure and innocent. It’s notable that people have overused the concept of white lies to justify a real lie that even the term white lie is tainted. People in the habit of lying need to objectively think and pray to understand this difference, but know that there are rare occasions of a truly good lie.

This is something that makes breaking such a habit more difficult, but understand that truly white lies rarely come more than once a year so you should have plenty of time to pray and review if the ones you have told were actually better told or not and confess them. If you are not sure ask in confession. Keeping the confessional in mind helps greatly in realizing that the purity of what you say must be true and not a justification of evil.

 

[sscott]

There is lying and lying. I had a friend who would make up a lie for no reason in favor of just telling the truth. Yes, it is a bad habit which is hard to break. But, even a priest would say it’s not a sin if you lie to protect someone’s feelings. "Do I look fat in this dress? " No.
If you catch yourself about to lie, ask yourself why aren’t you telling the truth? The question and answer happen very quickly and you can get on with telling the truth more often.

 

[WilT]

I have to say I have been blessed with the inability to lie to any degree. I can tell a “white lie” (barely) in order to arrange a surprise party for someone. But aside from that, I can’t. My grandmother used to joke with me about it, and tell people that there was one sure thing about me: “You just can’t lie.”

Apparently, even when trying the “white lie” I turn so red in the face :blush:that I look like I might explode, I start to stutter and nearly stop breathing. No need for a lie detector on my part. I have a built in one.

I think lying is a habit.

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lol. nice story. Strong conscience.

 

[WilT]

that brings up this ‘white lie’ thing. I personally believe that white lies aren’t acceptable but those are much harder to avoid.