How Lies Bite Us

     Ouch! Lies bite. I’m not talking about the ones we tell. I’m talking about the ones we believe.     
     Recently I felt stiffness in a family relationship. Why was she giving me the cold shoulder? Meanwhile, she believed her own lies and thought I didn’t want to be around her. Then, like ticks burrowing deep into our souls, we believed more lies: “She doesn’t value me.” “She doesn’t love me.” “Things will never get better.”     
     Finally the volcano burst. Anger. Tears. Gut-wrenching pain.     We could have walked away and called it quits, but Love pulled us back.     
     We talked. We cried.     
     And Truth cut through the confusion with laser precision, exposing the lies for what they were. Then with a skilled scalpel, Truth dug the festering falsehoods out of our souls.     
     Between sniffles, we said our “sorries.” We experienced what the first-century Jewish teacher Paul describes as the phenomenal result of having our thinking turned around: “times of refreshment.”     
     Relief!     
     Now I’m hoping we’ll be closer than ever in spite of this - or maybe because of it. If only we’d talked sooner and exposed the lies to the Light.     
     Do any lies fester in you about someone? Or any lies you’re believing about yourself? My advice: dig them out before they burrow deeper.
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     Photo courtesy of the California Department of Pubic Health with text added.