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I was listening to the audio Bible last night and this morning.  In Genesis 20, it was talking about Abraham lying to the King about Sarah being his sister.  (Which she was his half-sister, but he left the part out, about her being his wife so the King would not kill him.)

The story goes on when God gave the King a dream about Sarah; the King confronted Abraham about the truth.

After all is said and done, in 20:17 it states – “Then Abraham prayed to God, and God healed King Abimelek, his wife and his female slaves so they could have children again, for the Lord had kept all the women in Abimelek’s household from conceiving because of Abraham’s wife Sarah.”

So, this is the kicker for me.  How long did this go on, if God stopped the women from getting pregnant?  It had to be at least 6 months to a year for them to notice no one was getting pregnant.  So, the King did not sleep with Sarah for that length of time while she was in the Kings harem?  Also, why did the King and his wives get punished for something they really didn’t know anything about?  Granted the punishment wasn’t great, and God knew it was short term, but the king was believing what Abraham told him.

In vs 10 it clearly states “And Abimelek asked Abraham, “What was your reason for doing this?”  “Abraham replied, “I said to myself, ‘There is surely no fear of God in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife.” ^“Besides, she really is my sister, the daughter of my father though not of my mother; and she became my wife. ^“And when God had me wander from my father’s household, I said to her, ‘This is how you can show your love to me: Everywhere we go, say of me, “He is my brother.”

We all have reasons for lying and we can justify them very proficiently.  The problem with lies is that we don’t think they will hurt anyone.  We think we are helping ourselves, or even helping others.  My Discipleship Group’s last day, was yesterday.  It has been a small group of ladies, six total.  The question was asked, “what was your big take away from the group”.  Before I can answer that, I have to tell you about these “Accountability” questions we had to answer each week.  They were the same questions each week, so you knew when you stepped over the line throughout the week.

The Holy Spirit would convict me the minute I broke one of those questions.  So, before this last meeting even started, I joked that I was going to burn the page with the Accountability questions.

Well, when it came to my turn to say my biggest take away from the group, I had to answer with the “Accountability” questions.   All of the teaching and mentoring was great, but a lot of it I had already been doing before I started the group, other than those wretched accountability questions.

One of the questions was “Have you lied or told a half truth this week?”  Well, I found out that I do tell half-truths.  I like to omit items that are not very flowering in my favor.  I like to build up the positives that make me look good and maybe embellish them a little too much.  (Ok, maybe a lot.)  But who doesn’t want to look good in front of others?  I never see the other side, the side that the King was on, so I do not know if I have hurt someone thru my half-truths like Abraham.

The best I can do is ask for forgiveness, and try a new fresh start each morning.

Thank you Lord, for Your mercy.  That you do give us new starts each morning.

Karen Y. Stevens is founder of Orange County Writers Guild