Everyday in May: Honesty is the key

First of all, I'm behind on comments again, but will catch up over the weekend. I'm buried with articles until then. I really appreciate all of your kind words, and will check out your blogs in return very soon.

Today's prompt for "Blog Every Day in May" is: "A piece of advice you have for others. Anything at all." My best piece of advice for life in general is to always be honest to a fault. This is something I was trained with growing up, and it has always served me well.

Honesty is not just about telling the truth, but about living in honor. In fact, honor is the only thing you get to keep when you die. That's what my mother always told me. It's not enough to just tell the truth, but also to remove deception. Telling something that is technically the truth in words but still conceals the truth is not honest.

Even when you believe that a lie will be better for someone to save their feelings or make them happy, it will likely backfire in the end. Things may initially be OK, but the truth always comes out, and it is always worse after a lie. Conversely, the truth may feel bad in the beginning, but will allow the person hearing it to relieve themselves of any negative emotions right away and begin the healing process. And if it's small-ball stuff, that's not so difficult anyway.

When you lie, the person you lie to will usually have an inkling you have lied anyway, and then the negative emotions are allowed to pile up until they become venomous to everyone involved, including the person you lied to or were dishonest with. Even if it's a small thing, those annoyances will build up, and could even turn to hatred. So, just be honest every chance you get, and things will work out in the end.