ISSUES OF LIFE: Keeping Secrets

     When we were teenagers, we used to love to whisper to our close friends little secrets that we trust them to keep. "Shhhh... don't tell anyone", is the usual beginning and final statement when telling someone a secret. But these secrets eventually are bared and create issues between you and your friends who got itchy to divulge them to others. And why not? Trust is the issue for you and they betrayed that trust. Or is it the issue, really?

     A secret is a truth that you are covering for. Whatever the reason that this truth is being covered or hidden, it will eventually come out in the open. The Bible says that "there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, and hidden that will not be known" (Matthew 10:26). Like a water leak from your pipes, the secret tends to find a way out so that little by little the secret leaks until the full measure is drawn out. The trouble is, when you entrust someone with that secret and that someone uncovers it for you, it becomes a gossip topic and before you know it, everyone knows what you're hiding.

    Have you hidden a secret from your parents, your husband, your boss? That secret is usually a boo-boo that you've done, otherwise you wouldn't hide it. What if it was something that you need to pay for, like a petty theft or a crime, would you compromise your best friend's integrity by telling him/her of this? Would you feel betrayed if he/she prefers to divulge your secret to the authorities? 

     To me, keeping secrets is like lying to someone you love or to someone that would  be affected by your kept secret. You need to lay your cards on the table to give them a full view of who you really are. If you have secrets right now, you need to take them off your chest and bare them so that you could be free from the baggage you've been carrying for a long time. Maybe the consequence could hurt someone for a while, but honesty is still the best policy.