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“Thanks. An orange sounds good.” She handed him the fruit. “I thought so. You said you hated oranges, but your eyes said you loved them.” He shrugged. “If she knew I wanted it, she wouldn’t have taken it.”
“Perhaps. But I believe every dilemma has a truthful solution.” “Not always.” Walt peeled the orange.
“Oh. I assumed you were . . . well, never mind.” She fussed with the apple in her lap. He stared at her. She assumed he was a man of integrity, and a man of integrity never told a little fib for a good cause? Baloney. “I keep my word. But—well, a white lie’s okay if your motive’s right. Keeps things running smoothly—like ball bearings in the machinery of society.”
No, all lies are bad, all are sin. God didn't say, "Don't lie except..."
She searched for the truthful solution to her dilemma.
“My parents aren’t Christians.” “Huh?” He swallowed hard. Maybe the deal wasn’t stupid if he couldn’t talk when he touched her. “They think they are, but they’re not.”
“Not Christians?” “They think church membership makes them Christians, but in eighteen years at St. Timothy’s, nobody talked about God the way Betty did—not just her words, but the way she lived.”
“And you wanted what she had.” He liked knowing more about her, but what did it have t...
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“Yes, her assurance of God’s love, her joy in his presence. It’s what I wanted, what I needed.” Al...
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Why did Betty think it was so important to marry someone who shared her beliefs? Couldn’t a Christian wife’s influence bring her husband to faith in the Lord? Baxter’s salvation would be worth the sacrifice of her silly romantic dreams.
“Allie, silence is not a truthful solution to this dilemma. Groveside. Sunday.”
You don’t have to lie—just don’t mention it. You
No, still a lie.
“Dishonesty always has a price.”
“I’d never marry a man who didn’t share my faith, so why would I date one?”
Allie didn’t dare speak up, not until she found that Bible verse about how a believing wife could help her husband come to Christ. But what if Betty and Daisy were right, and she was wrong? She couldn’t be wrong. She had to find that verse.
Allie recited the verse she’d promised herself to find and memorize, “As the Bible says in 1 Peter 3: ‘Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives; While they behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear.’”
“That verse—read it again. Peter’s talking to married women, to wives who come to Christ after marriage, like I did, not to unmarried women.”
She turned a page and continued at the fourteenth verse: “‘Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers—’” Second Corinthians, chapter 6. That’s what Cressie meant. There it was in brutal black and white.
The first girl I brought home only attended church for holidays, weddings, and funerals. Mother thrust my nose in this passage and wouldn’t let me date again until I memorized it and took it to heart.”
I’d rather have a wife who loves the Lord than one who belongs on a magazine.
“What do you give up for Lent, Cressie?” “I don’t.” “Me neither.” Daisy chewed her gum and blew a bubble.
what’s the point?” For once, Allie was in the teaching role. “By giving up something we love, we show unity with Jesus in his sacrifice.”
“By giving up gum? Seems silly. If God wanted me to give up something, wouldn’t he want me to give it up for good, not just for forty days?”
“I’ve never thought of it that way before. But—but sacrifice is pleasing to the Lord. The Bible tells us to present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God.”
you’re right. Doing God’s will often means sacrifice.”
“Silly, isn’t it?” Daisy said. “Giving up luxuries. Makes you feel holy without making you holy.”
Sometimes we choose our sacrifices.” “Choose our sacrifices?” Allie stared at the diamond ring, so heavy on her hand. “Sure. We think we’re doing something to please God, but down deep we’re only out to please ourselves.”
“You see, the Lord told King Saul to slay the Amalekites, every last one of them, livestock too. But King Saul, he kept the best animals, said he wanted to offer them as a sacrifice to the Lord. But he disobeyed. Boy, was God mad—Samuel too. Samuel told the king, ‘Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt-offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice.’
Was she like King Saul? Allie walked down Eighth Street that afternoon, her pocketbook tucked under the sleeve of her chestnut wool suit. Am I offering this sacrifice for you, Lord, to lead Baxter to you? Or is it for me, to gain my parents’ approval?
This was what unequal yoking was. She could already feel the yoke on her shoulders, binding her to Baxter. He would pull in one direction, the Lord would pull in another, and Allie would be torn apart.
We know God is pleased with sacrifice and asks us to make offerings to him, but sometimes sacrifices displease God and he rejects them. You’ve already found 1 Samuel 15:22—strong verse, isn’t it? In Micah 6:6–8, the prophet tells us what the Lord prefers over sacrifice—justice, mercy, and walking humbly with God. Psalm 51:16–17 reads, “For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it. . .The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.”
See the theme, Allie? When we’re not following God’s will, our sacrifices aren’t acceptable to him. What God wants most is for us to be broken before him, walk with him, know him, and obey him.
I’ve always been able to justify my little white lies. But lately God has given me a tough time about honesty and shown me how my lies come from pride. I hate pride. God detests pride. I realized I had to stop telling those ball bearing lies. Worse, I had to confess to my crew a lie I told them—a whopper, I’m afraid. I didn’t feel good and noble. I felt like a louse. I let everyone down and lost the respect I worked so hard to earn.
“Sometimes doing nothing is the best kind of help.”
‘Dishonesty always has a price.’ Boy, a steep price.”
Silence isn’t truthful when it perpetuates a lie.”
