Honest - Authentic - Genuine - Real

This is a hard one for me but I am inspired by Saint Teresa's simple assertion to walk in truth. Walking can be strong and steady or weak and wobbly like a child. If they are a slow learner, how long before we give up and say "forget about it, crawl the rest of your life!"? Never. We keep trying, and if we fall down, we get back up, and if we need crutches or a wheelchair, or even if we do have to crawl, so be it. The same with truth. Let's keep after it. Let's try everything we can and judge success by results. The problem often comes when someone believes they have the ultimate truth, and force it on others despite popular opinion. Even if they are right, the lesson isn't learned, so is bound to come back again, perhaps under another (dis) guise. Better to be wrong and learn the lesson now. The keys are in the title here, are we being genuine, is it authentic, are we "keeping it real?" Being a recovering passive aggressive, dis-honesty was my pattern, so the disease can sneak in and assert influence, but this is what I really want so remain vigilant. I must also mention difficulty with "relative" truth; relative to the situation. The solution I see is to step out of ourselves to find the greater truth, that we may do what is best for all, the greater good. Personally, with difficult questions, I find it best to take time in prayer and reflection, to let the storm pass, to hear and feel God on the gut level to find what is real, genuine, and true. Check out Voice of Truth & Revelation .Part Two: Recently I have run headlong into honesty issues. First off, I had been hearing a buddy making false statements. My fear of confrontation and sounding holier than thou nearly stifled me but I thought, what if no one ever says anything to him about this? And if I don't, what kind of friend am I? Secondly, a guy agreed to buy my car but never came back from the bank, extra annoying because another guy had showed up just after him and wanted it too but went away empty handed. I told my buddy and texted the deadbeat that I have been there and done that plenty, but am working hard to change. That dishonesty only leads to suffering and sorrow, better to be upfront and honest as the truth only hurts once, dishonesty seems to drag on forever. Besides, that is the man my coworkers, customers, family, friends, everyone (including myself) needs me to be. My buddy said he only lies to save peoples feelings so I had to give him recent examples of how that wasn't true either. I also gave him a page of notes I use (not mine) that show how important and effective the truth is. The experience allowed me to broaden and deepen my experience and understanding of the value of truth, a great step in my recovery from this troublesome issue.