"Be yourself; everyone else is already taken."

Christians shouldn't lie. It's a children's church truth that everyone in America knows, practicing believer or otherwise. Anyone can quote with their best low-tone-Simpsons-like God imitation "'THOU SHALL NOT LIE" (or bear false witness or whatever), and it is as universally recognized as a goonie never saying "die". Being honest isn't something that just Jesus-lovers strive for either, its something that is admired by everyone, whether you believe in a God or not. Yet when it comes to Christians (and none Christians too I suppose) lying is something we do on the daily.

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Honesty is really what I wanted this post to be about. Not so much about verbally telling the truth(like I said before that idea is already lodged in everyone's brain), but being honest on a level that goes deeper than our conversations with others. What I've really been thinking about, is the honesty of our hearts. How honest are we with ourselves? How honest are we with God? How honest are we with our actions and intentions?

Personally, I think a Christian should be much more focused on the big picture of honesty, rather than only focusing if there speech has been factual or not. I think, instead of just nitpicking our words for lies, we should nitpick out hearts to see if they are transparent. We should look at our actions to see if our intentions are honest. Like when we pray, do we speak real words that are from our souls? or do we pray in routine, rhyme and rhythm, with words that don't really mean anything? Are we like the hypocrites in Jesus 'acts of righteousness' (Matthew 6) speech who do good works, and have lengthy prayers so that they will be admired? or do we do them so that others will actually be benefitted.

1 Samuel 16:7 says "The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” Often times I have to tell myself, "quit being fake!" because I am not always true to who I am, or to what I believe. I'm always trying to impress people, or look good. Even when I'm doing "Christian" things, I do them because "that's what a Christian should be doing!" rather than actually doing them with love, or out of compassion, or humility etc. 

When we are transparent and honest, I think that's when people actually experience God's love, rather than experiencing something fake and superficial. Christ did call himself the truth, after all, and that's what people are longing for. Something honest, organic, and full of integrity. We should examine ourselves daily to see if that describes us. Honest, organic, and full of integrity. When these words become who we are, we will be able to help and understand any kind of person, and love past any wrong, just like Christ has done for us.