Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Everybody wants honesty, but how many of us want truth?

There are two things I need to say in beginning this:

1) I will never say that I am faultless or perfect, but I am a constant work in progress that is striving for righteousness.

2) There is a difference between honesty and truth.

Honesty is the correct yes or no answer to any question you want to know the answer to, but truth is the answer to anything you need to know, but never knew to ask. Honesty is a flashlight that casts away the darkness of the lies that are right in front of our face while truth is a blinding light that takes any shadow of a lie that is all around us.

In talking to people and hearing how others handle situations and their daily lives, I can fathom that we all want to receive honesty and most of us try to be honest. When our parents, family, significant others, friends, or anyone else talks to us, we generally and genuinely want them to be honest with us. If we ever find out that those we are dependent on for honesty lie to us, we actually get hurt, upset, or at the very least...disappointed. But this is the extent of honesty; it can only be directed directly at us or we can only give it to others.

The truth, however, is far reaching. In other words, the people in Australia see the same sun that the people in Utah see and the truth is the same and just as relevant whether it's discovered in Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan or China. The biggest difference between the truth and honesty is how we handle it and how we relate to it.

When someone is honest with us, even if the honesty hurts, we eventually deal with it. We deal with it because the honesty is something that we wanted to know about, and it's always a little easier to swallow what you asked for in the first place. On the other hand, when we find out about the truth, there's an entirely different spectrum of possible feelings. The first thing most of us do is to deny what we've been given is the truth. Many times, we don't want to believe it which can also lead us to being angry about the truth or even wanting to "shoot the messenger" just for giving us the truth.

I believe that(and this is my opinion) we deny the truth and we get angry about the truth because we know that once it's brought to our attention, things are never the same afterwards. Granted, some of us ignore what we've learned and try to go back to living the lie we knew before the truth was presented to us. But no matter how hard we try to go back to the ignorant lie, and no matter how hard we try to forget the truth, we're still responsible and held accountable for the truth. Don't believe me? When your parents told you what right and wrong was, did they hold you accountable anytime you ignored them and did wrong? For those of us who have cars, most of them can go over 100 m.p.h., but if we ignore enough speed limit signs, what happens to us?

I write this not only to give the difference between honesty and truth, but to also urge anyone who reads this to always seek the truth. I know the truth isn't always pretty and it isn't always what we want to know, but it is always what we need to know and "the truth shall set you free". Free from living the lies we did or didn't know we were living, free from having to worry about covering up the truth because we'd be living proof of it, and free from the suspecting eyes of others because no matter how hard anyone else could try, they would have nothing on us because we would be walking in truth.

Friday, November 12, 2010

A Shout Out to Whuppings!

First of all, I would like to thank God, my parents, & a suspended high school coach in Mississippi named Marlon Dorsey. I would also like to thank the first mom that used a branch from a tree, a belt, a house shoe, or a hot wheel track to initiate corporal punishment to some little bad kid that deserved it.

I remember the first time and last time I got whipped as a kid. I don't remember why I got whipped the first time, but I remember crying...hard. I remember that I "hated" my parents for whipping me. I felt like I had been abused. The very last time I got whipped, I was a teenager. I had been in the parking lot of my mom's middle school and I was jumping over the hood of my parent's car a couple of times. One of my mom's coworkers saw me and told my mom. When my parents got me home, they questioned me about what I had done. I remember thinking to myself as my dad pulled off his belt, "I know he's not going to whip me. I'm a teenager!" I got my teenage butt whipped that day.

Instances like these, made me dislike my parents, but that dislike was temporary. At the time, I didn't understand what they were doing, but now, I couldn't be happier that they did it. No (good) parent wants to spank, whip, or beat their kids, but talking, nagging, and time outs only go so far, and there's not always a big chance for reasoning with kids especially when they want to have their way. But (good) parents know that the longer bad behavior goes unpunished, the worse the behavior will become.

I'm beyond sick and tired of liberal minded "forward thinking" adults and coddling parents who feel that whuppings are indecent, offensive, and unnecessary. These are the same people that will bemoan the overcrowded jails and the crime rate. When I got too far out of line, my parents whipped me. Because of that, I love and respect them more because they didn't try to be my "friend". Friends don't whip friends and parents aren't supposed to be friends with their kids.

The bottom line is because of what my parents did for me, they made me understand that my actions have consequences so it's best for me to pick the right actions to take. And this understanding kept me away from doing the wrong thing which is why I know better now as a grown man.

SHOUT OUT TO ALL THE PARENTS THAT STILL BELIEVE IN WHUPPINGS!

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Asking for a spot does NOT mean I want you to work out with me

Just to state for record's sake, I don't go to the gym to:

1) Dress in the latest sports attire and model for everyone
2) Flirt with the women
3) Talk to everybody instead of working out

With that being said, I do go to the gym because I want to stay in good physical condition while eating whatever I please and I want to get stronger than I already am. The keywords there are "stronger than I already am". This means that I have limits and weaknesses that I'm trying to overcome, but I can only do that by pushing myself to those limits.

Just to make sense of this, when I ask someone for a spot in the gym, I am asking for someone to assist me. If I am on the bench press, that may mean "breaking" the weight by removing it from the bar, and then watching me to make sure that I don't let the bar loaded with weight crush my chest. That's it! I don't ask for a spot so the person can do the exact opposite of what I do and can get a workout in too.

When I'm on the bench press, I don't want the person spotting me to pull the bar up as I'm trying to push it up. Why? Because if someone else is pulling all the weight, what kind of workout am I getting and if someone else is doing all the work, then I'm not getting any stronger.

You may or may not be into fitness, but I hope this point hits home for you...if someone else is doing all the work for you or taking the "weight" of the world off your shoulders, then not only are you living a sheltered life, but you're also not getting stronger. So when that "spotter" or that "yes" man isn't around anymore, an actual problem will crush your weak self. Just remember that it's always good to ask for assistance, but never ask for a crutch.