Calling It Like It Is

     I was listening to the radio the other day and was struck by the wording in one of the commercials.  It was talking about being "credit challenged".  It didn't talk about having "bad credit", but rather "credit challenged".  For years and years I had stellar credit.  I paid my bills on time, paid ahead on my mortgage when I could and reaped the benefits of those decisions on my credit report.  Conversely, when the economy took a turn and I lost my business it took a huge toll on our financial world and my steller credit was no more.  I have to say though, I was not "credit challenged"....straight up, I then had BAD credit.  I wasn't challenged.  We were forced to make heartwrenching choices that for credit purposes were BAD.  There are a lot of people that have BAD credit.  Some are just not responsible enough for credit and let things slide resulting in bad credit.  Some people lose jobs or have health issues that result in mountains of medical bills that unfortunately result in bad credit. 

The problem here is that we aren't calling things what they are because we are afraid to "offend" with a word.  Somehow we are assuming that to call someone's credit score "BAD" we are calling the person bad.  Bad credit doesn't automatically equal bad people. 

I know full well that not everything is black and white.  There isn't always a pretty definition that things neatly fit in, but why are we so paralyzed by fear of offending with truth?  The truth can hurt, sometimes the truth doesn't need to be spoken, but there are times that it does need to be spoken and that's when we need to mix truth with wisdom and courage and discernment.  It's a good mix. 

As Christians we are called to speak the truth.  Specifically we are told to speak the truth in LOVE.  We aren't to use truth to hurt, but to help.  It's our job and there is no room for fear in that.

Sitting here I am thinking about a few examples of truth that I will need to explain to my daughter soon.  To be honest, I'm not looking forward to it.  Speaking and teaching truth to a 7 year old in a world that rejects God's truths is not easy.  I'll be asking for a lot of wisdom and an extra serving of discernment, and of course, a dallop of courage. 

Let's not be afraid to call things what they are when it is truth.....let's do it in love. 

"Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming.  Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.

Ephesians 4:14-15