As I idled behind a line of automobiles at McDonald’s a panhandler asked, “Do you have any change?”

Before the request was out of his mouth, I replied, “I don’t have any change.”

As soon as the lie left my lips, I had misgivings. While I searched my ashtray for quarters,  the beggar shouted, “I know you have change.”

My cheeks puffed, and pulse accelerated. I yelled through my rolled-down window, “You don’t know what I have, and if I had any coins, I definitely wouldn’t give them to you.”

I mumbled, ” He has the gall to be arrogant when begging.”

The Holy Spirit convicted me as I sat at my desk – that was not the Christian response, even if the drifter was out of order. Saints are to be loving, giving, and honest. That made me think about lies we label ‘little and big.’

Those untruths we think don’t affect others – we call little lies or white lies. “We didn’t hurt anyone,” we say.

But the tales are still untruths – white, black, orange, purple, or polka-dot – a lie is a sin in the sight of God.

Earthlings think there are categories of dishonesty and sins – “little lies, big lies,” “white lies, black lies,” “little sins, big sins.”

God hates lies and sin – white, black, minor, or significant.

I pray that the Holy Spirit will help us remember that Jehovah does not categorize sin.

I pray He helps to stop lying, white, black, little or big, be honest in all situations, and trust the Holy Spirit to give us the right words.

 God, please remove the lying spirit from us.

We do not want to leave a legacy of ‘lying.’

“No legacy is so rich as honesty.”____________Shakespeare

What are your feelings about telling little, white lies?

Repost from 2015