Wretched Man That I Am!
Who will deliver me from this body of death?

Feb

19

Is Honesty on the Ropes?

Filed Under general christianity, parenting

Al Mohler writes about whether we are teaching our children to lie.

I spent all of my youth and a lot of my adult years lying to prevent conflict, so this article hit home.

Mohler writes:

Honesty can (and often does) produce conflict. For children, it can bring punishment when bad behavior is admitted. For parents, it can mean the necessity of confronting the child about disobedience. Thus, parents and children conspire to lower the risk of confrontation by accepting something other than the truth.

In my home, confrontation is simply loud and tense and it’s frightening how far we are tempted to go to avoid it.

He continues:

Do we, along with other parents, effectively teach our children to lie? Have we traded off permissiveness for getting teenagers to tell the truth? Would we rather not know, if knowing means putting children and teens into situations in which they might lie?

The Christian worldview does not honor truth as a matter of mere politeness, but as a moral necessity. We deserve the truth from each other, and we owe the truth to each other. As Christian parents, we should ask ourselves whether we are teaching our children to lie — and whether we really expect our children and teens to tell us the truth.

My children are far from being teens, but I pray my wife and I will take the tough road when the time comes… or I guess that time is already here.

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