I think we can all agree that telling the truth is a good thing and lying is a bad thing. Heck, “thou shalt not bare false witness” even made it into the most famous Top Ten list of all time!
Deceiving others is a terrible thing, but is it any worse than deceiving ourselves? I tell myself lies all the time, and I’m guessing you do, too. Here are some of the lies that I most frequently tell myself:
I’m just going to look at my phone for a minute or two.
I will make a shopping list before I go shopping. I will only buy what is on my shopping list. If I buy fresh fruit or vegetables, I will be sure to eat them before they go bad.
I will start on my laundry as soon as I get home from work. I will move clothes from the washer to the dryer the minute the washing machine is finished. When the clothes come out of the dryer, I will immediately separate them, fold them, and put them away. (I will NOT have baskets full of clean laundry sitting around for days until I am ready to start doing laundry again.)
I don’t snore.
I’m picking up my phone because I need to look something up–I am not going to scroll through social media while I have it in my hands.
I’ll definitely remember that, I don’t need to write it down.
I’ll just get up a half an hour earlier so I can get some good exercise in before I go to work.
I’ll start that diet really soon. But first, I have all of this junk food that I already bought–I don’t want to throw it away, so I’ll eat it before I start dieting, then just won’t buy any more of it.
Sure, I can get ready in less than five minutes.
Yes, I could make my lunch for tomorrow before I go to bed, but I’ll be fine just waiting and making my lunch in the morning.
I’ll only hit the snooze button once.
I can finish the last hundred pages of this book before I go to bed, and I’ll still have plenty of time for a good night’s sleep.
I will mow the lawn tomorrow, in the morning before it gets too hot.
There is no way I spend more than two hours a day on my phone. That report must be wrong.
I’ve got plenty of time to do that homework assignment, I won’t wait until the night before it’s due.
I’ve got plenty of time to write that newspaper humor column. I won’t wait until the night before it’s due.
