by Steve Marshall

Created on: March 29, 2009

Struggling with honesty to be ourselves honestly.

"Honesty and transparency make you vulnerable. Be honest and transparent anyway."
Mother Teresa, ( 1910 to 1997)

This is exactly why we struggle with honesty, because it makes us vulnerable. Mother Teresa certainly had a way with words. This quote is from her longer poem and which is well worth quoting in its entirety.

"People are unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered. Love them anyway.
If you do good, people may accuse you of selfish motives. Do good anyway.
If you are successful, you may win false friends and true enemies. Succeed anyway.
The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway.
Honesty and transparency make you vulnerable. Be honest and transparent anyway.
What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight. Build anyway.
People who really want help may attack you if you help them. Help them anyway.
Give the world the best you have and you may get hurt. Give the world your best anyway."

Love is honest when fully lived from. All dishonesty is only lack of sufficient love. This might seem harsh, but nevertheless it is true. Honesty, total honesty is always related to total loving. In total loving we are vulnerable as well, and so honesty to be given must be total, or it is better not given at all. Honesty is only love loving in its own way. All love is honest. Honesty is loving another soul wholly and completely, and honesty and giving others our own honest truth is really the true measure of how much we love them.

Honesty is related to trust. When we trust someone we are being honest towards them. When we love someone we trust them, and honesty always accompanies love and trust. They are inseparable companions on the journey of love moving from your heart back to its home in God. Dishonesty springs from wanting to believe in untruths.

Dishonesty is distorted truth seen through the eyes of not love but the ego wanting to have its own way over the heart.

Can I trust my anyone if they are lying to me dishonestly, or telling others untruths about me? Does the truth include half truths? Can someone tell white lies for us and about us and still be valued for their honesty? How far does honesty reach and extend itself outwards? Is there an end to honesty?

"A half truth is a whole lie." ~ Yiddish Proverb

A truth that's told with bad intent beats all the lies you can invent. ~ William Blake, English poet (1757 to 1827)

The most dangerous untruths are truths that are moderately distorted. ~ Georg Christoph

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