TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES

Posted on by michellethurman2344

Sometimes people say they are speaking the truth when they should just be quiet. “I’m just speaking my mind.” “That’s just me.” “If you don’t want to hear the truth, then leave.” Ever hear anyone say something along these lines? Often times, people say these things out of a perverse need to either have something to say….or because they are so sure they are right and you just need to grow up and take it like a man….or woman, whichever the case may be.

Maybe you’ve done this yourself. I know I have said and done things that were really unnecessary in the overall scheme of things. Things I wished later I could unsay, or undo; but life doesn’t give us do overs. What’s said is said; what’s done is done….and neither can be undone. We can go back and apologize, or make amends; or just smooth things over, but the things said or done remain in our past. Like it or not, I have suffered the consequences of those moments in my life and sometimes to the degree that the results were devastating in so many ways that I could never have foreseen those consequences. And certainly couldn’t measure the damage done to myself or to those around me.

I can repent before God and know that He forgives me and I stand absolved of that wrongdoing in His eyes; but sometimes the natural consequences still have to be faced and dealt with. When you say things that hurt other people….even when you are in the right; you might find yourself dealing with consequences of those words, sometimes for years or even the rest of your life. It might be in broken relationships. It might be in knowing that your words caused someone else to go off and do something that resulted in a situation that was irreversible. Being right, speaking the truth, isn’t always necessary. Sometimes you just need to keep your mouth shut; maybe come back later and talk it over with the other person, or maybe keep it to yourself forever. Your truth might be hurtful…to someone else, or even to you.

Is it truth? Is it right? Will the consequences become a burden that neither you nor anyone else can easily deal with? Jesus said we should let our “yes be yes, and our no be no”. In other words, maybe you should just say yes or no and leave it at that. Let God deal with the situation and don’t speak until you can do it in love, in gentleness and in a way that will do no harm. Which may be never. Being an adult doesn’t mean you can just say whatever you want, no matter how right you may be; it means learning when to speak and when to just plain shut up!

Theodore Roosevelt said: “Speak softly, but carry a big stick.” Make your words easy, and your actions significant. And know that those actions might include leaving things unsaid or undone that are better off left alone.

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Published by michellethurman2344

I was born in California, but both my parents were born in different areas of rural Oklahoma. My father grew up on a small cattle ranch and my mother grew up in the hills of eastern Oklahoma near the Ozark Mts. Both were born in the 1920's when Oklahoma was still more a part of the 1800's than the twentieth century so I like to say I was born of parents who were the last generation born during the old west. Their old west roots had a huge impact on my childhood. I spent the first three years of my life on my Granny's chicken farm. She was my father's grandmother and she owned 60 acres of alfalfa which she rented out and lived on three acres of barnyard where she raised chickens. There was some electricity, but no indoor plumbing outside of a faucet in the kitchen. The toilet was down the boardwalk in a small shed...in other words...an outhouse. The shower was a room under the water tank in the pumphouse. Granny's little three room house was the only painted building on the property. Everything else was raw, unpainted wood including the two room house my parents lived in. And I loved living on that little farm where I pretty much had free run of the barnyard and sometimes even wandered into the fields surrounding it. The town where I was born is along the Colorado River in the middle of the California desert and across the river from the Arizona desert and while we did live there for the first 12 years of my life, we moved a lot due to my father's employment. He was a big equipment operator and we moved to where the work took him, but usually only six months of the year then we moved back to our hometown. We moved to Northern California in 1958 and I have lived here ever since. I am a mother, a grandmother, have one great-grandchild and recently retired. I am divorced and now live with my youngest sister. My sisters and I like to cruise and take road trips. I am enjoying my life.

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