Gut Wrenching Truth

I will never forget the terrible lie to my mother when I was a child.  It ate at me for days.  I had been instructed all my childhood, “Do not run through the dining room!”  Mom had nice antiques and family heirlooms in there, but as a child I just couldn’t yet grasp what in the world a hair loon was! I certainly did not think ants were nice and only dogs had ticks.  One day I ran through and pushed into the kitchen through that enticing swinging door, cape flying behind me in my wake!  From the kitchen I heard a crashing and breaking sound.  With dread, I discovered a very old plate in four pieces.  Mom would be coming inside any minute, so I laid the pieces back together and balanced them perfectly.  She will never know until someone else walks through here.  I escaped to my room on tip toes. 

It took a day or so and the whole time I had a knot in my stomach.  I stayed clear of my mother.  And I remember missing her.  Looking back I recognize that my falsehood created separation.  I was away.  I was hiding and waiting.  Down deep, I wanted the truth to come out but was not yet brave enough to admit my disobedience, my deception and now the broken fellowship.  Then I heard it.  Crash!  I sneaked down stairs.  Nothing in the dining room, so I quietly tip toed through the swinging door to discover my mother with the four pieces of her grandmother’s dish on the table…weeping!  I tried to console her, but she just kept saying, “Thank you sweet boy, but it is not your fault!  I just don’t understand how I made it fall!”

I had a free ticket.  My deception had worked!  I had deceived her.  I was home-free!  But love and relationship trumped fear. I couldn’t take it anymore.  I hated myself.  I hated the separation.  I hated for my mother to take the blame for something I knew that I had done. That lie leapt from my guts as if someone had performed the Heimlich maneuver.   I learned a life lesson that day. I may have, but I don’t remember lying to Mom after that. Even as a teenager, I cannot recall lying to my mother.

And we are to be lovers of truth once we put off the old and put on the new!

Coach/PJ