Nothing But The Truth

Nothing but the Truth

Make them holy by your truth; teach them your word, which is truth. John 17:17

One of Nathan’s daughters, Elise, loves to kid her dad and other family members, and when she isn’t kidding them, she is trying to tell if the others are kidding or telling her the truth.

She continually asks everyone to “pinkie promise” that they are telling her the truth. To emphasize her seriousness, she extends her pinkie finger toward the person she is addressing. I suppose if she still isn’t convinced, she will ask for a “double pinkie promise” to determine the truth tellers in her midst.

I don’t know who introduced her to pinkie-promise truth telling. It’s cute, in its own childish way. But the message it conveys to Nathan is troubling. He and his wife have tried to teach their children that they should always tell the truth. That whenever their mouths are moving and words are coming out, they should be truthful. And if the girls tell their family something about a particular matter or situation, and a nonfamily member tells Nathan or his wife something different about the same matter or situation, they will believe their girls. Period. No questions asked.

Using a pinkie promise doesn’t necessarily demonstrate that the girls are stretching the truth, but it does introduce the concept of situational or relative truth that is rampant in our society today. It’s the idea that things could be said and stories told, and unless someone pledged a “pinkie promise” to substantiate what they were saying, no one could rely on it as being true.

God teaches and demands absolute truth. A pinkie promise circumvents that. Although Nathan admits he’s not crazy about throwing cold water on his daughter’s game, the slippery slope of pinkie-promise truth will have to go.

Uncommon Key > Even if others can’t tell if you are kidding, lying, or telling the truth, you and God know. Hold yourself accountable to tell the absolute truth. There is really no other kind.