BOX OF GOLD

I have a friend who is into buying and selling. She sells shoes, clothes, accessories, weave-on and many other things. My friend prides herself in selling only original things, every time she brings her goods, she would name her different customers, ranging from bankers to politicians and even government workers, in fact she made it seem like I was very lucky to be one of her customers because her customers are big women, she calls them ‘society ladies’. Whenever I am buying things from her, I am always very careful because if I price too much, she will say ‘my friend you have come again o, when you wan enter society ladies list, na so so price you dey price.’ So I always try to maintain, I don’t buy things from her regularly and I try to avoid her as much as I can. I was really maintaining this level o, because things were going fine with me, my account balance was normal, if I have to buy things I know where to go and no be say anything o, I will get fine cloth, very fine ones with matching shoes sef. Society ladies ko o

One day, I don’t know what pushed me, I still can’t say this is what pushed me to ping my friend. I needed a good weave on because I had a wedding to attend, I thought it would be nice to ask for professional advice. Immediately I pinged her, she responded it was like she had been waiting for me. I told her I needed a weave on and then she started giving me names and prices. We chatted for long and I finally settled for one, it was expensive but she promised me that nothing would happen to it because it was original human hair. I took it because I trusted her and I knew that she would not sell anything fake. It was really expensive (I am not telling the name of the weave on, neither am I telling the price but you are free to guess)

Sisters and brothers, I’m sure you can imagine my disappointment when just after a day, the weave on began to tangle, it got so bad that I could not brush it, I had to take out the hair. I confronted my friend and she couldn’t say any sensible thing, I was very angry, she definitely still had her way of selling fake things. I didn’t find it funny at all. The fact that I expected an original human hair and I got fake was disheartening, it was not even the good fake, you know there are some fakes that you would still be able to rock for some time, but this one was the original fake, the unusable fake.

When I realised that the weave on was fake, I no longer cherished it like i did when I first got it, all I wanted to do was empty it in the trash, mere seeing it made me unhappy because it just was not what I was expecting.

This is exactly how it feels when we are lied to or cheated; this is exactly how it feels to lie to someone about who we really are. The reason is that when we lie about who we are, we create another picture of ourselves in the mind of the other party.

Many people have gone into marriages and relationships with lies, and in order to sustain the marriage, they tell more lies.

Many ladies have lied to be virgins before their marriage, but you can imagine the irritation of the husband when he finds out that the queen of his heart is not a virgin. It takes a lot of processing, he begins to remove the initial thoughts he had about the person and tries to find a way to fix in the new one, he starts the process again all from the beginning and that can be very painful.

Some men lie about their profession in other to win the heart of a lady, they pose around in big and flashy cars pretending to be somebody else.

Many parents have lied to their children about their profession, their children see them as responsible parents but their secret and evil profession are not worthy of emulation.

Some friends tell lies upon lies to keep their friendship.

Some people pretend to come from wealthy home just to be able to measure up but the truth is that it is not even about the lies alone, it is about how you make the victims feel. The victims of these lies and deceit often feel used, depressed, hurt and damaged.

We do not have to lie to keep up appearances, we do not have to pretend in order to win another person’s love. When we do so, we hurt others and we make a fool of them.

It’s like waiting for a box of gold and when the box finally arrives, it’s a box full of dirt. Picture it, how would you feel?

Enough with the lies, enough with the deceit. Everyone deserves the truth, no matter who they are. Don’t cause other people pain, don’t hurt other people. If you cannot tell people who you really are, if you would rather tell lies and deceive people than tell them who you are, then whatever you are doing is wrong.

People are not toys, do not hurt them because in the end you will lose both the person and the image you tried to protect.

Don’t turn another man’s box of gold into a box of dirt. There is nothing worse than living a life that is not yours. Live your life to your satisfaction, do what is right and pleasing to God, but please do not live another person’s life, pretending to be who you are not. It is stressful, energy consuming, and destructive.

Whoever you are, you are good enough, you are a box of gold,

Stop lying,

Stop deceiving,

Stop forming,

Stop fronting,

Stop faking before you become a box of dirt.