Speaking The Truth

Twice in the past week, I have heard the question posed on TV “And what caused the turning point in your life?” The question was asked of a woman dealing with anorexia and of a man conquering an addiction to drugs. They both answered the question with basically the same answer: “When someone finally spoke the truth to me.”

Now the secret is that as Christians we are to “speak the truth in love” (Ephesians 4:15, NIV). But how do we do that?

The Bible is quite clear. We are to give the truth to a person without a lot of personal opinions. Our back up should always be scripture.

I recall many years ago when a Christian friend spoke the truth to me. My friend and I were both on the PTA (Parent/Teacher Association) board and attended an integration meeting for our children’s school together. I was convinced I was not racist, but I was actively working against integration and felt very justified in my position. As we were driving home after the meeting, my friend said to me, “Marilyn, I know you are very sincere in your position, but I believe you have a racist attitude and your position is not honoring to God.”

Now I can’t say I was thrilled to hear her statement, but I knew my friend was trying to speak the truth to me. My responsibility was to receive her words and try to decide just exactly what I was going to do with her words. I took her words to the Lord and prayed for God to show me what He wanted me to do and how I could represent Him best.

God began to speak to my heart and I began to see that I was afraid of those who were obviously different from me. I asked God to change my heart and help me welcome change in my life and in our home.

I could spend hours telling you how God expanded my views and subsequently my life. One of the greatest things that happened was when an African-American young man said to me, “You know the thing I like about the way you raised your kids? You raised them to be color-blind!”

How grateful I am that my friend spoke the truth to me in love. I can’t imagine what I would be like if she hadn’t spoken the truth to me that day. My friend did not preach or condemn, but she spoke the truth lovingly. I’m sure she had no idea how God would expand my life’s experiences and break down the walls of prejudice that I was convinced were justified and acceptable for a Christian to have.

Perhaps you need to speak the truth to someone and perhaps that someone is you!