Reliable = Truthful

I have had a repeated issue with "other people" not being reliable in returning phone calls, following

through with their commitments to work, or not showing up to (fill in the blank). Their unreliability was an irritant to me. When, the other day, I saw an email that said "Being reliable is equal to being truthful," well, I knew that "those people" weren't reliable. And then it occurred to me that I had given my word to complete deadlines that I didn't make.

I had made commitments to myself to quit eating certain junk food. I had made commitments about a lot of things to myself and other people, and I always found a really good excuse or would laugh it off because "it wasn't that big of a deal, right?" Well, apparently it was when I was judging other people! But I realized, as I spent time listening to God, that I was not being reliable or truthful with God, with myself, or with others when it came to some of the things I was saying to myself, to God, and to others. I was being dishonest. I thought because I am "cash register honest" (meaning I don't steal things), that I was honest overall; but I was actually stealing other people's time and my destiny when I wasn't being truthful with myself or with God.

When I was growing up, I used to hear the saying "Do as I say, not as I do." So the question to me today is, "Does what I say line up with what I do? Am I reliable, honest, and truthful?" So in my spirituality, is the Word of God really my #1 priority? In my finances, do I really make a budget and stick to it? In my work, do I really do it with excellence and make deadlines and commitments? In my health, do I really work out consistently and try and grow in that? In my diet, am I really keeping myself in healthy foods that don't destroy my health? Do I set goals and meet them? Do I make a schedule and stick to it? When I get revelations, do I steward them well? Am I a good friend? Do I give as much as I take? Or do I make empty promises and then get irritated when other people don't meet the promises they make to me?

I heard a woman who is 90 years old say, "Don't give me an excuse for not doing your work. An excuse is

the skin of a reason stretched over a lie."

So today, I'm going to make different choices just to do one thing different and stick to my word to other people, to God, and to myself. Actually, to God, myself, and other people. I encourage you to look at those places in your life and see where you might want to do something different, because if you want something different then you have to do something different. So I encourage you to write it down and picture it in your heart and keep it there every day. Speak it over your life as though it already is.