The Importance of Truthfulness

All Children Tell Lies, But How Can We Stress The Importance Of Truthfulness To Our Children and Mold Them Into Trying To Be Honest???

What constitutes a lie? Really?! Is it really a lie if it's just a little white lie? Saying something that you hope is true, but may not be? How bad is a lie if it's just a 'little one'?

When a child lies, trust is broken and relationships suffer. Sometimes we, as parents do not know how to handle dishonesty. The usual disciplinary action does not seem to fit, but we cannot just let them off the hook. "Don't lie next time" is not going to do the trick!

Here are some ways that I have dealt with lying. Again, as stated in the blog concerning Anger, I use other time to talk to my child about lying, not only when he has been caught in a lie. All he will be thinking about is how soon he can get away from your 'all-knowing eyes'!!

^^^^Talk about truth and reality and how they are different. Talk about pretend, make believe and possibility.

^^^^Use the verse in Proverbs 30:32 to teach your child to stop talking the the middle of speaking a lie. I have stopped Ethan mid-sentence to tell him, "Wait a minute, you need to think about what you are saying." Teach your child to stop and think, "Is this a truth or a lie?"

^^^^Require your child to earn trust. For example, if your child takes a piece of candy from the jar and claims that he did not, but you catch them in a lie - let him know that you know the truth and that he must earn your trust again. This may hurt your child at first (which sometimes hurts mom even more!) but it is for his own good. Children need to know that from lying comes mistrust.

^^^^Teach honesty by reading or telling stories like "The Boy Who Cried Wolf", "Pinoccio" and "The Emperor's New Clothes"! (Oldies but goodies!)

^^^^Always give an outlet for storytelling, simply because children have WILD imaginations! Pretend play, story telling, it's ALL GOOD as long as they know the difference between make believe and the truth!

In the Bible Peter tells a lie. He claims not to know Jesus at all, he lies because he is afraid that he will be hurt if people find out that Jesus is his friend. (Matthew 26:69-75)

Mold your child to be honest. Teach them that when they feel like telling a lie, they need to ask the Lord, Jesus Christ to make them strong to say only what is TRUE!