God loves the truth-teller, and when Stephen was born, the good Lord decided to give this special baby an extra dose of honesty.
Stephen could not lie. He didn’t understand the point of it, and even in circumstances where it would be kinder to shield the truth, Stephen simply couldn’t do it.
When a person tells the truth all the time, their personality takes on an unintended edge. Stephen came off as arrogant or rude. He embarrassed his parents with his frank observations.
“If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.” His mother would tell him.
His father tried to teach his son the benefits of the little white lie. But the eager student just couldn’t grasp the concept of deceit in any form.
Stephen was an oddity, and his childhood was tough. Children teased him. There was one time an older boy stuffed him in a locker. More than once, he received a beating from a ticked-off teenager.
Yet, eventually, most everyone who knew and loved Stephen accepted his “limitations” with one exception. Stephen’s younger sister Abigail was his champion. She didn’t see his honesty as a limitation at all; she saw it as it indeed was: a gift from God.
Stephen grew to be a fine young man. He never learned to lie, but he did learn how to use the truth in service to others.
He became a lawyer.
That’s right. In a profession filled with cunning attorneys willing to use half-truths, evasions, and perversions of law, Stephen stood out among them.
There’s an old proverb that says only lawyers and painters can turn black to white. Imagine an artist of honesty filling a legal canvas with bright, vivid colors of truth. That’s Stephen’s specialty. He is as expressive as he is accurate.
He stands out in a courtroom. Stephen earned the respect of the judges, and he wins his cases handily.
Abigail is proud of her older brother and the success he found in his career. She introduced him to a friend of hers, and the two hit it off. It was a relief to Joann to have a boyfriend she could trust. Their relationship evolved; they got married, had children, and live a peaceful life.
Imagine living a life of truth-telling. Try it and see if you too could serve God and others with integrity intact, lips that speak the truth, and a heart to help.
By Susan Diamond
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