HONESTY will always save you from guilt. And I think everyone will agree. But at times when we do not want to hurt others, especially our best friends, we may break reality to them gently. But doing this is so difficult as there is no easy way to gently hurt friends aware or unaware of their actions.
At times one can hear awful descriptions about their friend. And one is caught on guard whether to tell them, knowing that the friend will always opt to confront the person, which will start a big fire. I mean, not all would like to be the reason for the chaos.
Also, instead of telling the brutal words, others tend to rephrase the words, finding less hurtful synonyms. This can happen to others who choose not to hurt the friend much.
On the other hand, friends will sometimes stop telling others their attitudes need to change. This can happen when presenting reality to pre-condition friends to constantly justify their actions. Hence, the friend may find other ways to tell a friend. It is such a difficult encounter when ones’ goal is to protect a friend, but one listens less.
Or one may have been offended by a friend and will choose not to speak about the pain. This is to preserve friendship and for old-time sakes. Hence, no matter how bad the feeling is, they pretend to be okay. Still responding to text messages, but inside is the pain they bring even when asleep.
All of these may happen so as not to hurt a friend. And one can say, “I am doing it because I do not want to hurt.” But can a good friend tell you half-truth? Telling half-truths even though the purpose is good will be a quick way for a friend to lose trust in you. A lie will always remain a lie. As a friend, you should know that the truths can only be understood once known, and so it is better to tell them so that they discover.
On the other hand, some say that half-truths are better than truth. It can less hurt and may be accepted easily. Because revealing half-truths to friends removes some painful facts that may be helpful not to injure their self-esteem. Of course, friends would not want to see the one they love suffer in devastation.
Some will say that people must not be judgmental of people telling the truth or half-truths because we are unaware of the circumstance. Sad, but it is easy to be the judge about others who are brutal but tell the truth and gentle but say half-truth. In friendship, absolute truths cannot always happen, but honestly, I feel that half-truths can only add up to whole lies. So, half-truths may lead to guilt feelings, the most undesirable sentiment.
And so, again, honesty will always save you from guilt. Remember that when we love our friends, we are ready to hurt them with the truth. It is better to risk the possibility of hurting our friends with us being true than covering the truth, not for them to get hurt. I guess this is the best description of a true friend.
So, help us God, have the courage to give tough love and tell brutal truth even if it hurts our friends rather than telling half-truths.