In Others’ Words: Honesty

Honesty is one of my key values.

That hasn’t always been true.

In the past, I was all about being less-than-honest with myself. Ignoring the truth. Sometimes I shoved the brutal truth in a closet, slammed the door shut, turned my back on the banging and kicking and screaming — Hey! Open this door! — and walked away.

The essence of honesty is truth. We like to think of truth as something … beautiful. But as God walked me through a dryer-than-talc desert time in my life, I learned a bitter lesson: Sometimes there’s no prettying-up truth. This realization hit me during the Christmas season — one where the “Joy to the world” rang hollow. I remember writing in my journal: Sometimes you can’t drape truth in tinsel to dress it up. Sometimes truth is just plain, ugly truth.

At least I was being honest with myself.

And embracing that ugly but honest truth, letting it be, was a step of healing for me. One of many to come … but a step.

In Your Words: Honesty is one of my values. What’s one of yours?