When I saw the topic ”Good lie” the first thing that came to my mind was the story of a man who was called God’s friend, his name was Abraham. The reason why this man came to mind was because there was part of his account where the Bible recorded that he told a lie (was it really a lie?). To so many they said it was a lie but then when you look at it critically it wasn’t a lie, it wasn’t just the whole truth. Now Abraham had a beautiful wife and for some reason, while they were traveling, they entered a city and the king saw his wife and wanted her for himself but then he wanted to be sure who Abraham was to her since they where together.
At that point, Abraham knew that if he was to tell the king that Sarah was his wife, then he would have lost his life so he told the king that Sarah was his sister. Now he knew he was going to loss his life if he gave away too much information so he had to share just enough information to stay alive. The man later found out the whole truth but at the time he did, he wasn’t interested in killing Abraham again so he let them go in peace and that was how Abraham saved his life.
From this short story, I learnt a lot of things and one of them is that I can save myself and even others without lying. I’m a person that believes it is wrong to lie for whatever reasons we might think of and that was why at first, I had my doubts about the story of Abraham telling something that seemed like a lie because he is a father of Faith, until I found out it wasn’t a lie at all. As humans, this is one reason why we need to be slow to speak and quick to listen. We have to learn the habit of solving different puzzles because if we don’t we might end up putting ourselves in trouble.
In as much as we don’t want to tell a “good lie” since it’s still a lie, the best way we can still save our heads is by sharing just enough information. The truth is I’ve never really told a good lie because I’m not so good at lying. Instead I either tell you a lie that you will end up knowing I lied or I tell you half the truth or I’d just be plain with you and refuse to answer your question since I know I can’t tell the truth and I don’t want to also lie.
I remember as a kid I was always tempted of telling lies and I fell a couple of times because I was scared of being flogged. And for that, I prayed to become an adult quickly because I just believed that adults never get flogged, they only get scolded at and I knew I can bear that more than getting flogged. And really, when I became an adult, I found it easier to tell the truth because the worst anyone could do was to see me as a bad person but they can never flog me, lol. And because I knew I also don’t like to be a bad person, I made deliberate effort to do the right things so I don’t find it hard to be truthful.
Maybe I must have told a good lie according to what it means but to me that is still a lie and I’d never feel settled and from what I can remember, I most times later tell the truth because I end up realizing that I have manipulated someone and that may lead to more manipulations if one is not careful. I’m only trying to disabuse my mind from the idea that there is a good lie because trust me there isn’t, as long as it’s a lie it is wrong and there are other ways we can go around it and still save ourselves and those we love. The best way to start is by alway trying to do the right thing as much as possible.
This is my response to the Hivelearners topic on ”THE GOOD LIE”.