Tangled Lies

 The ultimate story of a tangle of lies that crumbles and falls to pieces is Aladdin.  Almost the whole movie is a lesson on honesty, but we will focus on Aladdin himself.

To impress Princess Jasmine, he makes a wish to be a prince.  After some exciting theatrics, a little magic, humor, and a bit of music Aladdin is a "Prince."  He's got golden camels, purple peacocks, a zoo, white Persian monkeys, elephants, llamas, bears, lions, a brass band, cooks, bakers, and birds that warble on key.  You name it he's pretty much got it.  But, as we all know, none of that did the trick to winning the young girls heart.  It was all in his personality.

We all know the story.  Aladdin lies over and over.  At one point he receives some sound advice from Genie. 

Genie: "All right, sparky, here's the deal.  If you wanna court the little lady ya gotta be a straight shooter.  Do ya got it?"

Aladdin: "What?"

Genie: "Tell...her...the TRUTH!"

Still, he continues to lie.  At first, it was all good.  The lies took care of things and made life easy.  But, after a while, the web becomes almost too hard to handle.  He begins to hurt the ones he loves and the happiness he found at the beginning is lost in the sea of lies and deception.  "What if they find out I'm not really a prince?  What if Jasmine finds out?  I'd lose her.  Genie, I can't keep this up on my own."

It is so easy to get caught in a mess such as this.  Sometimes it seems easy to lie and portray ourselves as someone different.  Someone more "cool" or "interesting."  What actually happens to us is quite the opposite.  As the lies slowly unwind we are left with shame, humiliation, and sorrow.  Not one of which is a desirable feeling.

The Church's thirteenth article of faith states, “We believe in being honest.”  It's no fluke that two of the Ten Commandments deal with being honest.  When we are completely honest we are able to enjoy self-respect, peace of mind, and become trustworthy individuals. 

It took time for Aladdin to hone up to his lies and try to make amends.  But he did it and the story ended with a "happily ever after."  Each of us can have a happily ever after.  You don't have to stay stuck in a web of lies.  It is possible to untangle the knot.  Untangling may be painful, hard, and take some serious repenting, but it is worth it.  The peace that comes from living an honest and trustworthy life is incredible!