(02/15/12)
The other day my daughter and I had to have a little conversation about lying. Unfortunately, I’m sure we all remember having that fun conversation with our parents at one time or another. On this particular day, my daughter had called me to come pick her up early from school. Being that she had been fighting a cold the weekend prior, and been acting really cranky that morning, I had no problems going to get her.
On the way home, I started asking her questions about how she was feeling seeing that she didn’t have a fever. I wanted to know exactly what body parts hurt; and she replied with that wonderfully, non-specific, juvenile answer of “everything”… to which I replied, “Right”. The real problem began, however, when we got home. Since I am someone who doesn’t like vague information, I decided to ask her again about how she was feeling. She sat and told me how she had been hurting from the top of her head to the tip of her toes. So I told her it was time to rest since she had to come home early. That went over like a lead balloon. All she wanted to do was play! So, I proceeded to ask her again: “Zoe, are you really feeling bad?”… to which she answered, “Well, I was. I feel better now.” Then came the question… you know the one… every child’s nightmare… the one that if you’re not careful will prove that you’ve been lying. “Zoe, were you really feeling sick at school, or did you call for some other reason?” Zoe replied, “Well, really I just wanted you there mommy. I didn’t really want to leave school. I just wanted you to come and be with me there.” OK, so I have to give the child kudos for actually coming clean; but when I called her on the carpet and told her that she was in trouble for lying to me, she did what every human being on the planet does… she got defensive. We argued for a few minutes (to which you may wonder who is the more foolish in that situation). Then I told her exactly what her punishment was for lying and walked away. Zoe, however, decided that the argument wasn’t over and felt it necessary to walk around the house telling her story to every inanimate object she could find that would listen. After her minor tirade, Zoe came out of the bathroom and said, “OK! I was lying! I’m sorry!” And again, with less sarcasm this time, I replied, “Right!”
After I thanked her for apologizing (in her own way) the rest of her day was spent inside the house, not getting to play, or go anywhere (except to the drug store)… and mean mommy took away her nighttime TV and still made her do her homework! For a while I didn’t see a lesson in this situation beyond “thou shalt not lie”; but this morning God reminded me of how often He has to work with us to get us to admit when we’ve sinned. OUCH! That’s a little harsh, right? But I know there have been many times in my life when that’s been a true statement. We go around telling ourselves that we didn’t do anything wrong, or if we did, we had good reason. We analyze our actions according to world perspective, all the while trying to forget God’s truth. In the end, we drag ourselves back to God going, “OK! I sinned! I’m sorry!” What goes on in between is the struggle… the one that makes us tired and is so unnecessary because God is always there, waiting for us to come back to Him with open arms. So my lesson in this is the next time we sin (and it happens to all of us), we need to be quick to go to God’s throne and ask him for forgiveness. It keeps our relationship with Him on track, and alleviates the pain of a pointless struggle. We have enough to deal with in this life. Do we really want to make things harder on ourselves? I know I don’t.
Hebrews 4:16
Isaiah 30:18
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