To Tell the Truth

Do not lie. Do not deceive one another.
                 —Leviticus 19:11

Ken Stegall, an admired preacher friend, wrote about a man who had a small grocery store in Sheridan, Arkansas in the 1940s.

A customer told him she needed a large chicken. He reached into the ice bin, pulled out a chicken and put it on the scale. The lady said she needed a bigger one; company was coming.

He returned it to the bin—and since it was the only chicken he had—pulled it back out, put it on the scale and added a few ounces by pressing his thumb on the back of the scale.

The lady said, “I’ll take them both.”

Stegall writes: “A lie takes control of your life. Deception requires constant cover-up. It destroys relationships. . . . Friendships and marriages are destroyed.”

He’s right, you know.

If you always tell the truth, you never
have to remember what you said.

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