The Greatest Lie Ever Told

As children, we are taught that lying is wrong. Honesty is the best policy. We are expected to tell the truth. As adults, we know that isn’t always the case. Sometimes we need to bend the truth or tell a little white lie to protect the people we care about. Most adults are guilty of fibbing on a regular basis, and most see nothing wrong with that behavior.

Personally, I hate being lied to. I don’t care what it is, I always want the truth. If I ask your opinion on something, I actually want YOUR opinion. It’s not about what I think, or what you think I want to hear. If I asked for your opinion, I asked for your truth. I get so frustrated with the “well, I think blah blah blah, but it’s really whatever you think” response. I already know what I think. Take some advice from Dr. Seuss and say what you mean.

The flip side of that is mean what you say. One of my biggest pet peeves is broken promises. I don’t make promises I can’t keep. If I’m not absolutely certain about something, I’ll say I’ll try, or I’ll do my best. Broken promises lead to broken hearts.

So, what’s the greatest lie ever told? Well, I’ll tell you. At least in my experience, the greatest lie ever told is “I’ll always be there” or the ever-popular “you won’t ever lose me.” I don’t even have enough fingers and toes to count the number of people who have said that to me and then disappeared from my life. That’s one of the biggest triggers of my anxiety. My abandonment issues come from all the friends I’ve lost. Too many. Even the ones who said they’d never leave. That lie causes me to question my worth as a person almost every single day of my life.

I’m learning to love myself. I’m trying to focus less on what other people think and more on what I think of myself. But truth be told, it’s hard to see the good in yourself when you feel so easily tossed aside and forgotten. My insecurities wreak havoc on my relationships, and very few people can weather the storm of my emotions. Recognizing my shortcomings is hard, often painfully demoralizing. I want to be better. I want to be a better person, a better mother, better wife, better sister, better daughter, better friend. I believe that we all have room for improvement, and we should strive to be better each day. I’m a work in progress. I’m trying. I refuse to give up. So go ahead, lie to me.