Oh My ---?

This evening, Megan told a fib. During the pre-sleep tumbling session, she said "O My G--!" and Sally went - what was that about? who taught you how to say that? ... We know we did not teach her neither did we say that. We know that kids are very impressionable and they absorb everything they see and hear. And so we are usually very - very - very - very careful with what we do and say.... So, we know it didn't come from us. And Megan "refused" to tell us where she learnt/picked it up from. We know that she is keeping something from us, and was telling a fib to cover it up or to "protect" someone.

As parents, somehow we have this uncanny ability to know that it's a fib and also know (not rocket science) that she picked it up from school - from a few usual suspects. And so when we questioned her, she refused to say - it's kinda like a secret and she will not divulge. Put her in the time-out chair but she cried, played on our emotions - Daddy I will not do it again and will not say it next time, etc. But we knew that if we back down, this "battle" would have been lost and the lesson will not be learnt. To cut the story short, she blurted out the name of the girl - C - whom she learnt it from.

Why did we come down "hard" on her?
Because we want her to know that it is wrong to tell a fib. Megan does not fib. It's not her character. Tonight is an anormaly and sometimes, it is because she heard and picked it up from someone in her class - who used a particular term, phrase, etc... And also to let her know that she can't call a bluff with her parents. We read her like a book. We know when she's telling a fib and when she's telling the truth.
And because we want her to know that she cannot use the Lord's name or God callously or use it in vain. If we do not nip it in the bud right now, then it will become a habit.

At the end of the whole saga, we told her that we were disappointed in her - for telling a fib, knowing full well that she is not supposed to and that we disapprove her language (reinforcing that she need not speak the same lingo as her classmates - she does not have to behave like them in order to be accepted or loved)... but we also told her that we love her very much - even though she told a fib, we still love her to bits and that she will still get to go for her art class.

The lesson I learnt - our Father in Heaven also knows when we tell a fib, whether we mean it from our heart, whether we have the right attitude or wrong motive... The Bible says - the heart is deceitful above all things... who can fathom... or who can know it? I tell you that there is someone who knows - God does... our Father knows... we can't pull a rug over His head... it's not possible. Ah... But I also know that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thingm shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Our Father in Heaven, Abba Father, loves us... even though we told a fib and broke His heart but He loves us. He loves you. Does that mean that we can take that for granted? God forbid! It should compel us not to make the same mistake again.

Like Megan, I honestly doubt she will say that again. I believe she will always remember the look we gave her - a look of disappointment but also the embrace of love when I sat her in my lap to let her know that mommy and daddy still loves her no matter what.

Dad signing off...