I just had a sad moment. I caught my little one telling me a lie.
I’m not sharing this to expose or uncover our precious daughter. She is one of the sweetest girls ever and WE ALL SIN. I’m sharing this to maybe prepare another parent for the moment you catch your child telling a story.
Our daughter had a friend over last night. This morning when I entered the kitchen I saw cookie crumbs on the floor and a broom nearby. I finished sweeping up the crumbs and didn’t think anything about it — assuming she had tried to sweep up the mess she had made.
Later in the morning, her friend wanted some popcorn. When the kids opened the pantry, my daughter said that the cookies had fallen out of the wrapper. I said, “That’s ok. Did it happen last night?” My daughter said, “No” with a guilty look on her face. The friend said, “YES it did” and my daughter tried to hush her. I just happened to catch the interaction and it made me SO ANGRY. That is a big pet peeve of mine. I cannot STAND for someone to lie to me.
TRUST
I let her know that I was not happy and that there were consequences for sin. I was praying I would know how to handle this in a way that would not bring condemnation and shame.
I told the Mom of her friend what was going on so that she could come pick up her child. I didn’t think I should reward bad behavior with a play date. The Mom (who has 4 kids) gave me some good advice. She said to share a time I lied and felt regret.
After the friend left, I found these scriptures and opened my daughter’s Bible:
Psalm 34:11-14
Come, my children, listen to me;
I will teach you the fear of the Lord.
Whoever of you loves life
and desires to see many good days,
keep your tongue from evil
and your lips from telling lies.
Turn from evil and do good;
seek peace and pursue it.
First I told her how much I loved her and that WE ALL SIN. We have all lied. We are born with a sin nature and that we ALL NEED JESUS! If it weren’t for His blood, we couldn’t go to heaven. We read the scriptures together and discussed what they meant.
She asked me if I could think of a time I lied when I was younger. I really couldn’t think of an example (though I’m sure there were MANY ), then God planted one right in my heart!
One time when I was a preteen I stayed at my grandmother’s house with two girls who were several years older than me. I was young, innocent, and naive. I wasn’t experienced in doing anything that teens sometimes did. After my sweet grandmother (who was probably around 80 at the time) went to bed, one of the girls decided to call her boyfriend. The next thing I know, he and some guys picked us up in the middle of the road as we ran in the cover of night. I think we ended up at some church (nice eh?). The girls got out and left me in the car chatting with some guy that I didn’t know. Thankfully he was just a nice guy and only chatted with me. God protected us and we all arrived back to grandmother’s house without a scratch. But the regret sank in when my elderly grandmother asked me the next morning where we went. I LIED and told her we were just out in the yard. I’m sure she knew better because she said she called out our names and we didn’t answer. She should have called our parents, but she didn’t. But I told my daughter how much I still regretted lying to my grandmother. I shed tears just telling her about it.
She and I shared a lot of hugs, love, and some tears.
I told her that I never had a Biblical foundation growing up and that I wanted her to have what I didn’t. I want her to have the strength to always do what is right even when others aren’t.
I pray she will remember this for a long time.
I told her that I cry out OFTEN, “God help me be a better Mom. Help me be a better wife …” I fail often!
My daughter has a friend that lies a lot (which helped provide a good example). None of us can trust anything she tells us because she lies so much. I don’t want my daughter to ever think that is acceptable. Now is the time to learn this little lesson that will hopefully set a firm foundation.
BTW … after a couple of hours, I decided to show her mercy and allow her friend to come back. She felt regret for what she had done.
I am certainly glad God is merciful with me.
Thanks for visiting me today~
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