Don’t lie. The dog is always watching.

Honesty isn’t always easy.  Recently I’ve been trying to teach my kids that if they tell lies, God still knows the truth.  I may not be able to always catch them when they lie, but that doesn’t mean they have really gotten away with anything.  I was reinforcing this lesson with my four year-old Danny the other day.  He told me he had finished his lunch, but how quickly he finished it was a pretty big clue that he wasn’t being entirely honest.  I told him, “I’m going to ask you to tell me the truth, but if you lie I probably won’t know it. Do you know why we don’t lie? Lies are very bad and hurt your heart. Even if Mommy doesn’t know the truth, do you know who always sees you and knows exactly what you did with that food?”  Danny looked down at his plate with the most guilty expression and answered, “The dog.”  That was not exactly the answer I was going for, but it did tell me exactly where the rest of that lunch had gone.

As an adult sometimes I think nobody will notice my little (or big) lies.  I imagine they aren’t hurting anybody or are a necessary part of getting along.  I need to be reminded that even if nobody else knows that what I said was a lie, God still knows.  Those lies ultimately hurt my credibility and cause distance in my relationship with God as I try to avoid the conviction that comes when I lie.  Just like Danny does, I need to learn that in every situation it is important to be honest because if nobody knows my lies, God knows my heart.