number nine

I love it when the things we've been trying to hammer home with the kids hit their mark.  I'm a proud mama when I hear manners without any prodding from yours truly, or better yet, obedience without even a whisper of punishment.  Those are beautiful moments. 

Those moments don't happen all of the time.  

And that's a shame to, because if they did, I would have a whole lot more time to sit around and stroke my feathers and marvel at my abilities as a mom. Funny how God didn't see fit to let that work out...What am I supposed to be learning here, anyway?  Humility? Dependence? =)

I digress, but you get the point. My kids aren't perfect.  We are in a training process that I don't expect to end as long as they are under this roof, and I'm perfectly, satisfactorily happy with that.  That's how God wants it, and that's what I'm here for.  But there is one thing in the behavior department that I want to make sure is never, never, never tolerated; it's something my mom ingrained in me and I'm hoping to ingrain in my girls right from the get go.  I want them to always tell me the truth.  And in that area, I don't want there to be any wiggle room.

If I can trust my kids, if I can know that even if they get in trouble they will tell me the truth, then I will value that like gold. In fact, no other behavior—manners, obedience, attitude—can match the importance I place on truth.

I was reminded of this on Wednesday night when my pastor, Bro. Danny, gave a devotional on the ninth commandment, do not lie.  To be honest, I didn't expect the message to pierce me like it did, because on first glance it seems so straightforward. But as Bro. Danny unpacked the full implications of a life lived out in truth, I realized that the narrower version of "truth" that I had in mind  didn't quite cover it all.  Living without any lies is harder than you would imagine  because it encompasses a whole lot more  than the straightforward telling a mistruth that we normally think about.  It applies to exaggeration, gossip, presenting something in a better light than it really is, telling partial truths, leaving out parts of the whole truth, insincerity, pretending to be something you are not. It takes a conscious effort to live like that, making sure that the truth, whether it makes you look good or not, is all that is coming out of your mouth and being lived out by your actions.  

God hates lies. He makes that pretty clear in His word.  And my pastor pointed out, if the illustration he gave through Annanias and Saphira tells us anything (read Acts 5 for the story), God especially hates people who pretend  to be more spiritual than they really are.  

So the point is, truth isn't just for kids.  I want my girls to know how important it is to be known as a truthful person, but on the same token, I must always watch my own life to make sure it measures up to the full meaning of truth laid out in God's word.  

Truthful lips will be established forever, but a lying tongue is only for a moment." Proverbs 13:19