A pet peeve

I've got this pet peeve. It's about truth in advertising. It really irritates me when you see one of these ads come out where they say, "New and improved" when just last month they were saying they got your teeth "as white as possible". Does that mean what was once considered impossible is now possible?

Then there are the truck ads: "America's number one selling truck." How can they all be the best selling truck? Of course, some of them add in the phrase "...in its class" as if that's supposed all make sense for us.

Here's another one: "No cash up front" but in the small print you read "this doesn't include all necessary fees, taxes, title charges, etc."

There is even a radio station now advertising this in our area: "Nashville's official Christmas station." Really? Because I don't think the Mayor's office really recognized one station as THE official station for Nashville this time of year? And, even if I missed that memo, I bet it wasn't really your station that was named, especially since the next station down the dial is proclaiming the same thing.

My problem is this (I know, you're thinking "don't you have anything else to worry about right now?")...we have a serious void of truth in our culture. No one knows how to tell it any more. Presidents lie. Role models lie to their fans. Dads lie to their children. Students lie to their teachers. And it's because we have created a culture where truth is heralded as a worthy virtue but no one is willing to go first. We accept lies from our elected officials. We allow companies like the one's above to fudge on their advertising. We don't expect our kids to always be honest. And then everyone acts surprised when we discover our kids have been caught in another lie. They are just acting out what they have seen since the day they were born. We expect people to be truthful with us but don't demand the same from our own hearts. Before we can expect the world to live in truth, we've got to be living lives of integrity in our words and our actions. Truth matters people. Just ask God what He thinks...

The Lord detests lying lips but he delights in men who are truthful. Proverbs 12:22 NIV

Therefore each one of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor... Ephesians 4:25 NIV

Do not lie to one another, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of it Creator. Colossians 3:9-1o NIV