Okay, So I Lied.
I climbed in the car, and my dad asked me how it went. “I beat him up,” I replied. Waiting at the curb stood
Matthew Brown, the big red-haired bully of Kindergarten. I stared at him as I literally said, “I gave him a left, then a right, then another left, then a right, and down he went,” replaying what my 5-year-old reasoning figured a fight actually looked like from the lingo of the boxing matches my father watched on Sunday afternoons.
It didn’t occur to me that my father could see Matthew, and that the kid didn’t have a scratch on him.
Five-year-olds will often confuse fantasy with reality, communicating what they think should have happened, or wished to have happened, as if it actually did. My father saw this as lying.
He was right. None of it was truth. And while another might have chosen to explain the difference between what I said and what happened, my father was a black-and-white sort of guy. Lying was lying, and no amount of child psychology “psychobabble,” as he called it, really mattered.
So I got spanked.
It was all very controlled, non-abusive, and painful. There were 5 swats. We had a long discussion before and after.
And I learned what lying was.
And I learned that even though my father disciplined me, he loved me.
And I am thankful for this example, because NOW, when God allows (or causes, there’s not much difference, is there?) life’s circumstances to spank me, I pay attention. I ask, “God, help me learn what you want me to learn, and quickly, because I can’t do it on my own.”
Sin is sin, whether I’m aware of it or not. Proverbs 22:5 says, Folly is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline will drive it far away.
We are His children, at different levels of maturity, even throughout our adult lives. He wants our lives to glorify Him (Isaiah 43:7) and so He will teach us.
The only real choice we have is, will we learn the lessons eagerly and more easily, or will we learn them stubbornly and take longer?
Dare you today to
- Read ALL of Proverbs 22, actively choosing to listen, not to what you want to hear, or what the enemy will twist (did you know that guy does that? L)
- Actively choose to ask Him what lesson He is teaching you through the difficulty you are now dealing with
- Take a leap of faith, choosing to read His Word daily, maybe even with us by subscribing, so that you grow in wisdom and can discern Truth when you need to
- Share with others, inviting them, or share what He is teaching you by commenting here or on the Facebook Community Page for The Respect Dare book readers
Just so you know, just one of the things He’s doing with me right now, is allowing
Thankful to be journeying with you!