The Foundation On Which We Build Our Lives

By Jennifer Graham, MS, IMH


“Are you telling the truth?”


You might be able to recall the childhood memories associated with this question! Let me portray perhaps an all too familiar scene:


Johnny: “Mom! Jimmy hit me!

Jimmy: “Did not!”

Mother: “Jimmy, are you telling the truth? Did you hit your brother?”



Little Jimmy is caught in a moment; a host of thoughts fill his mind: “Great, here I am again. If Johnny was tougher I wouldn’t be in this mess! Technically it wasn’t hitting… my hand just brush against him with unusual strength! I have really been giving it my all in P.E. class. This is just like Johnny to open his big mouth. No, I didn’t hit my brother, Mom, maybe Johnny is not telling the truth…”

The reality is that Jimmy did in fact hit his brother but he struggles in his mind and emotions about stepping forward in what is true. He expends his whole mental process because there is something that he thinks is greater and is attempting to protect and/or hide.

You have heard it said, “Honesty is the best policy.” That sounds great on paper, but it is a challenge to live it out in the real world and in our own personal lives. I find it interesting that even within the Ten Commandments that God set in place to govern our lives and protect us we find these simple words:


“Do not lie.”


If the God of the Universe would deem it of high importance to make an emphasis on the value of speaking the truth, it would be appropriate to examine its position in our lives. Ok, sure, some lies are bad or we shouldn’t tell “big” lies. You might even see some of the negatives to lying. Perhaps you need no re-evaluation of the significance and power of lies. “If I start with one lie, I have to keep the cycle going…” or “I might be in the clear for now but then I become fearful of the truth getting out, or someone finding it out.”

Something as basic as knowing what is true, speaking what is true and walking in what is true is foundational, and has extreme impact in your life. In fact, perhaps a great deal of your pain, sadness, anxiety and frustrations are stemming from a lie that looked appealing and that you thought to be true. This is what occurred: you made an external or internal interpretation of information from an event or self dialog; you adopted it as “truth” and began laying it as a foundation for the way you live.

There is a great difference between the foundation we know to build our lives on and the actual foundation we are stand on. Are you standing on a truth or a lie?


“God doesn’t care about me or He wouldn’t have let _______ happen.”

“No one likes me. I feel unlovable.”

“If I could just get the new iPod, I would be ok.”


Have you ever had thoughts similar to these fill your mind? Perhaps “truths” as stated above have been like an unwanted weight or burden to you throughout your life. If you think about it you can notice that these “truth” statements are highly dependent on personal interpretation of God, yourself and others. This means of interpreting truth has been in practice for a long time well before any altercations with siblings and parents occurred. I find that this type of truth interpretation tends to happen when your life focus is centered on you and those around you and generally in a negative light, causing frustration, sadness or anger. Is it possible that your life focus has been misplaced, resulting in the persistence of these emotions?

Have you considered that your life focus is reflective of where your foundation lies? If you glean just one grain of truth from these words, know this: That place where your foundation lies develops roots into your soul and produces growth with determines how you interpret what is truth.

Where does your foundation lie?





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