Pants on fire

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It feels like Huckleberry Fin and Tom Sawyer merged into one. It’s the quick answers, the fidgeting; the shaky pupils afraid to make eye contact, all in an effort to hide something.

My young man is tangled in the lying web and he can’t save himself. As soon as he shakes his hand free, his leg gets caught. The web is all over his hair and face – an endless cycle. Just when he thinks he has figured it out mom and dad carefully unpack the story right before his eyes. At times there is an innocence to it and he will in fact give himself away, but other times wickedness rears its head without disguise and I want to scream. Alas! This is a contract that Adam signed for each of us as we came into this world.

When he said he’d done all his homework and he hadn’t. When he said he’d brushed his teeth and the tooth brush was as dry as the Sahara. Then the DS he brought home that was given to him by his teacher for doing an excellent job in class. A few more questions and the story tanned like a chameleon crawling over a rainbow. He couldn’t decide just how to connect the tale.
How could my baby lie to me? I was furious!
What happened to the safety he felt with mom and dad? When did trust fly out the window?
I felt like I had failed at parenting, at creating a safe environment to tell mommy the truth. Then I was reminded how we are all infected with Adam’s sin. Slowly the picture of a cute, innocent, trusting little human being begins to fade.

For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

All? Including the cooing baby just starting to make sense of his surroundings? The baby unable to speak or “think” (as we define it)?
The very fact of our existence; the essence of our being is a sentence.
A taste of what God must have felt in the garden when Adam and Eve hid.

I failed again with my response. I failed to stay calm, to love him despite of the act. I erupted! “Lying is a sin, liars go to hell, and the devil is the father of lies”. He recoiled.

Such a selfish act on my part, I was more concerned about the "purity" being tarnished instead of the person inside. Why the fables and tales? What was going on inside? Was there cause for him to lie? Was he afraid of my reaction?

How do I build this trust again? How do I communicate that I love him but lying is wrong? How do I awaken his conscience to the ugliness of lies? How do I teach him the importance of being earnest? Is it a phase? Should I ignore it? Am I being too harsh?

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