As the wife of a recent cancer survivor, I take even greater issue with people using cancer as a way to gain public sympathy or money. But as news of the Manti Te'o scandal broke I also couldn't help but recognize that my feelings of disappointment and frustration were also rooted in a lie I'd started to tell myself.

I want to believe all of this public deception is something new, something we can blame on the glorification of public athletes or the rise of social media sites. When I've talked to others about these cases I tend to say, "Can you believe this is what our world is coming to?!" But in reality, deception is nothing new. It is a part of human history since Adam and Eve's encounter with the serpent in the Garden of Eden.

"You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman."For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil" (Gen. 3:4-5). As we know, Eve's pride wins out over God's instructions to not eat from the tree and the rest is, to state the obvious, the beginning of our sinful nature.

I hope and believe I won't ever try to pull off a lie as great as some of those we're seeing in recent news, but not a day goes by that I don't struggle with my own pride. If anything, Manti Te'o's story is a reminder of my own sins and the need for Christ's ultimate redemption.

Lesley Sebek Miller, a Westmont College graduate, lives in Sacramento, California. She is a member of the Redbud Writers Guild, and her work has appeared in Relevant Magazine. She is a former social media director and has a particular fondness for discussing the intricacies of social etiquette in online communities. She blogs at http://barefooton45th.com.