Little lies will catch up with you no matter how small they are. One of the interesting things about lies is that they breed more lies. When you don't tell the truth, it is often difficult to remember the story that you told that wasn't true. When this happens, you say more little lies to cover up your first lie. As the little lies snowball, they turn into big lies. The little lies may be easy to cover up, but the big lies magnify.
I was having a conversation with my youngest son the other day. He was sent home with a note from school because he had disobeyed his teacher. One thing about my child's school is that they follow the note up with an email or phone call. This way if they conveniently forget to tell mom and dad, they get a friendly reminder. So my youngest son “forgot” to mention that he got sent home with a note. No problem, his teacher explained everything to me in an email.
So after reading the email, I confronted my son. He admitted that he got sent home with a note. The only problem was his story didn't match what the letter said. Since the teacher did not witness what had happened and was relying on a story from another kid in the class, I had my doubts. To get to the bottom of the story, I decided to set up a meeting with my son's teacher. Being the trusting parent that I am, I believe my kids are innocent until proven guilty. Most parents set the same standard for their children.
Little lies will get bigger.
We picked up our children from school on the day of our meeting with the teacher. Having a half hour to kill before the meeting we decided to get some errands done. After our errands, we started heading back to the school. The first thing that my children noticed was that we were not headed back home, but headed to their school. Immediately my youngest son started asking questions. Why are we going back to school, he asked? I told him that we had some stuff to do there.
When we got to the school, I told my older kids that they could play on the playground. My youngest started to question why he couldn't go. I said to him that we were going to meet with his teacher and get to the bottom of what had happened the day before. Immediately he broke down into tears. At that point, I knew that I wasn't getting the whole story. Frantically he grabbed my hand and held it firm as we walked into the school. As we walked down the hall, we spotted his teacher walking towards us. Instantly my son hid behind me. I don't know if it was guilt or shame or a combination of both.
When lies set in, and the truth will set you free.
John 8:32 NASB and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”
The other day made me think of this verse from John. The truth will make us free. When we spew lies and mask our lies with other lies, we look ugly. We rot to the core being consumed by guilt trying to cover up our dirty deeds. When we speak the truth, we feel relieved. It feels like a massive weight is lifted off our shoulders when we come clean and quit lying.
As soon as we walked into my son's classroom, he began crying hysterically. Before a single question was asked or a single statement made, he broke down into tears. The guilt of concealing a lie is a heavy burden. The freedom and liberation of exposing the lie is amazing. My son found out that it was too heavy of a burden to conceal the lie that he was hiding. Not only did he do something wrong, but he lied to us about what he had done.
As a parent, it is hard when your children lie to you. But when you see the remorse spilling out of their heart, it makes you melt. Sometimes our children do not always do the right thing. As parents, we do not always do the right thing. But one thing I know for sure is when we are honest with each other, the truth will set us free.