A long time ago, in a green valley, there was a boy whose job it was to watch the sheep. He sat on a hill all day, and the sheep ate grass, and the boy was very, very bored.
The boy had been told what to do if a wolf came. He was to shout "Wolf! Wolf!" as loud as he could, and the men of the village would come running, with sticks, to save the sheep.
The boy thought about this one afternoon. He thought about it for a long time. Then, because he was bored, he stood up and shouted, "Wolf! Wolf! A wolf is eating the sheep!"
The men of the village came running. They had their sticks. They had their boots on. They were ready.
There was no wolf.
The boy laughed. The men were not pleased. They went home.
A few days later, the boy was bored again. He stood up and shouted, "Wolf! Wolf!" The men came running. There was no wolf. The boy laughed again. The men went home, more slowly this time, and they did not laugh with him.
A few days after that, a wolf came.
The wolf was real this time. The wolf was big. The wolf began to chase the sheep. The boy stood up. He shouted, "Wolf! Wolf! A wolf is eating the sheep!"
He shouted as loud as he could. He shouted until his voice broke. He could see the men in the village. He could see them looking up. He could see them turning back to what they had been doing.
Nobody came.
The wolf ate the sheep, and the boy sat on the hill in the long grass and cried, because he had no sheep left, and no men coming, and his voice did not work anymore.
The boy thought lying was a small thing. It made the men come running. It was funny, the first time. It was funny the second time. He did not notice that with each lie, his voice became smaller, even though he was shouting just as loud.
Solomon wrote that lying mouths are not just a problem because they are wrong. They are a problem because they break the thread that connects one person to another. Once the thread is broken, the words do not carry anymore. The shouting does not reach. The villagers stop listening, even when the wolf is real.
Truth is not just a rule. Truth is the rope that holds people together. The boy did not lose the sheep because he lied. He lost the sheep because he had used up his rope.
Whose trust have you used up, a little at a time?
Is there a way to begin earning it back?