“I’ve looked everywhere for those pliers…I’ve told you a million times to put them back where you got them.” There…you have two exaggerations in the same sentence! How many times do you exaggerate in a day’s time.

And you know…I use that word “exaggerate” so seldom, that I had to go to the dictionary to see how to spell it. I’ll bet I’ve done that a thousand…wait a minute…there I go again!

We’re really good at exaggeration. Do you remember in the movie about Uncle Remus, the big old bear told someone “I’m gonna knock your head clean off.” He didn’t really mean it. And we don’t really mean it when we spread something a little think. But there are times when it can cause trouble. You’ve played the game as a kid, where one person whispers a sentence to the one next to him, and it’s in turn whispered around the circle. The difference between what the first person said, and what the last person heard, is usually hilarious. At least to us kids who played such games. I remember so far back into my childhood, I recall Mom and I talking something about a snake, and we would say “A NAKE?,” and I would howl with glee. I can’t imagine what made that so funny to me.

But as I said, exaggeration can be bad. So don’t make it sound like the truth when you’re shooting the bull with someone. And above all, don’t tell something as the truth when it really isn’t as bad as you’re painting it. Matlock often saves persons from prison by proving that the person a witness swears is there in the courtroom, is really a person who looked and dressed like the killer.

There are things you can’t exaggerate: The Lord’s love, patience, knowledge, ability, and all other good things. He is incomparable and limitless.

As for you, be honest. You’ll amaze folks. If it could hurt another, just don’t say it. I’ll repeat from a Zane Gray book…the crook said, “The gang doesn’t trust you…you’re honest.” I hark back again to what my Sunday School teacher (Helen Diehl) said…”Don’t say something, even if it’s true, that you wouldn’t want said about you.”

Christ will be pleased with you.

37BT Bill Thornton June 20, 2007