“The moment we begin to fear the opinions of others and hesitate to tell the truth that is in us, and from motives of policy are silent when we should speak, the divine floods of light and life no longer flow into our souls.” ~Elizabeth Cady Stanton

We hide so much in our lives. We lie to save face, to look good, to avoid trouble. We lie so others will accept us. I am done lying. I am done being a coward. I believe lies are only used by cowards because it is the truth that takes bravery. You must be brave to admit you messed up. It takes bravery to admit you drink too much, over eat, are lazy, have cheated, or have hurt someone. These are the things we would like to forget and hide from the world. These, along with hundreds of other things, are the things that we are good at covering up.

I have a baby inside me. This child has never lied or cheated. Both of his* parents have and they have become experts at it, but he is pure and clean and has not yet made a mistake. I will be responsible for this child and will be responsible for teaching him how to live. I do not want to teach him to hide his problems so that others will not judge him. I do not want to teach him to lie to his spouse so that he can get what he wants. I do not want to teach him to lie about his beliefs so that others feel more comfortable. I want to teach him that he is human. He will make mistakes. He will hurt people. He will hurt me. I want him to know that those mistakes are ok. They are part of who we are and they are part of life. But lying about them, hiding them, and living one life while he is alone and another while he is around others is not ok. That is what society will try to tell him is right and that is what society will expect of him. The problem is that he is an exceptional child and he is better than what society will try to teach him to be.

*I still do not know the gender of my child, so this pronoun is not a reveal. 🙂 I simply use masculine pronouns to make the writing a little easier.