Dishonesty diminishes confidence
Dishonesty robs you of confidence. Confidence in public comes from discipline in private. You lose something every time you deviate from who you really are. You can’t do less than your best without gaining guilt and losing your self-confidence. Those who walk in dishonesty are hollow shells. They don’t realize how substantial the effects of their constant self-betrayal are on their daily lives.1
The inviolable honesty of God provides an anchor2 that justifies extreme effort on our part and provides strong consolation against disappointment. We access both benefits through our own inviolable honesty. As you are brutally honest with yourself and all others, you will find the confidence only available to those who stand on the surest of foundations: the truth, as far as you presently understand it.3
24 Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock:
25 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.
26 And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand:
27 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it. (Matthew 7)
Without the kind of confidence that only comes from deep honesty, the uncertainty and challenges of the modern world will overcome you. In absence of honesty, we will experience despair4 in place of hope.
Dishonesty is a weak attempt to sidestep God’s justice, but God’s justice is inescapable.5 You can’t ignore God’s justice when your choices suggest future punishment without weakening the resolve it would provide you in cases that would result in your blessing. Courage comes in large part from the confidence those who do their best have in their eventual attainment of worthwhile outcomes in spite of apparent and significant challenges. A person who lives so as to avoid God’s punishment will not have God’s courage.6
You can’t intentionally deny God’s justice in one thing without disbelieving it in others. The less you trust in God’s justice, the smaller the sacrifices you will be willing to make for fear that the results will not be worthwhile. The more you lie, the less power you will have to engage in opportunities that require greater sacrifice. Without firm belief in God’s justice—including a life lived in accordance with it— you will never pay the high price required to achieve great things in life. The most powerful source of confidence in life is belief in God’s justice coupled with the sacrifice of obedience to God. One way of measuring the strength of your faith is by the degree of sacrifice you are willing to make for a worthwhile outcome.
Footnotes
- 1. A man that breaketh wedlock, saying thus in his heart, Who seeth me? I am compassed about with darkness, the walls cover me, and no body seeth me; what need I to fear? the most High will not remember my sins: Such a man only feareth the eyes of men, and knoweth not that the eyes of the Lord are ten thousand times brighter than the sun, beholding all the ways of men, and considering the most secret parts.(Sirach 23:18-19) ↩
- 2. That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us: Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil; (Hebrews 6:18-19) ↩
- 3. The Spirit of truth is of God. I am the Spirit of truth, and John bore record of me, saying: He received a fulness of truth, yea, even of all truth; (D&C 93:26) Behold, my brethren, he that prophesieth, let him prophesy to the understanding of men; for the Spirit speaketh the truth and lieth not. Wherefore, it speaketh of things as they really are, and of things as they really will be; wherefore, these things are manifested unto us plainly, for the salvation of our souls. But behold, we are not witnesses alone in these things; for God also spake them unto prophets of old. (Jacob 4:13) And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall. (Helaman 5:12) In order to enter the kingdom of God, you must align yourself completely with the truth as far as you know it: “Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” (John 3:5) ↩
- 4. And if ye have no hope ye must needs be in despair; and despair cometh because of iniquity. (Moroni 10:22) ↩
- 5. Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. (Galatians 6:7) ↩
- 6. To the modern Christian who proudly proclaims their sin as if it glorifies God, David’s bold request to God is unthinkable: “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” (Psalm 139:23-24) ↩