I'm having a hard time focusing on the truth today. I know the truth. But truth isn't as appealing as a lie, thus it's hard to swallow. Until you bite into it, truth has no fragrance at all. Lies, on the other hand, smell like dinner's almost done.
When I was a young woman, a well-intentioned breakout speaker at a women's conference suggested a nifty little trick to use when dinner's an afterthought and hubby's almost home. For the life of me, I can't remember who suggested this little deception, but at the time I thought it was a good idea. She simply recommended that if your husband was expected to be home from work any minute now and you hadn't started dinner, just slice an onion into a few wedges and put it in a hot oven to roast. Meanwhile, of course, you would get busy preparing the real dinner. But even if hubby got home before you'd peeled the potatoes or thawed out the meat, he would be greeted by the "aroma of dinner." Or so he thought.
Not only would your husband assume you had planned and prepared dinner, but the roasting onion would awaken his appetite. If he wasn't hungry when he walked in the door, he would be by the time he changed clothes. Once you actually got dinner on the table, whether it contained onions or not, he'd be hungry enough to eat anything!
But the onion is a lie.
The onion smells good and awakens the appetite. Nothing more. It stirs the desires, but it doesn't deliver.
I've found that lies do the same thing. When I entertain lies they make me even hungrier than normal in my soul for things like significance, purpose, and love. The lies make me feel like I'm starving for those things, in fact, like I'm completely depleted. The lies make me focus on what I don't have and what I desperately want. But the lies don't feed those hungers; they just intensify them.
That's why it's necessary to identify a lie when I see it. Or when I smell it. Otherwise, my discontent increases and appetites take over, pushing me to do and say things I normally wouldn't do or say.
And it's equally important to feast on the truth throughout the day, even if I think I could spot a lie a mile away. Truth may not smell as sweet or as tempting at first whiff as a lie, but truth satisfies. Truth actually feeds my soul hungers instead of stirring them.
What lie do you need to replace with truth today? And what truth do you need to bite into instead? You tell me and I'll share mine with you!
By the way, I tried that onion trick once. And it worked...I suppose. But I decided that was a waste of a perfectly good onion. Now I just either get dinner going when I should...or I 'fess up to losing track of time and take him up on his invitation to go out to dinner instead!
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Labels: meditation, Satisfied at Last, truth
