Truth

Truth. Do we know it when we hear it? Are we discerning enough to recognize the lie from the truth? What is the key to insight? to truth? I'm talkin' life pivotal truth - that brings about change in us and through us for our good - for the good of others.

I was talking to a mom yesterday about who has a five year-old daughter. Her little girl is challenging this mother using four letter words of the most colorful kind. The child has heard these words from Daddy and Grandpa and enjoys trying them out herself in any context that requires a raised voice and strong emphasis. The mother's concern: What do I do if she goes to kindergarten using these words in the classroom?

She went on to tell me she has put her daughter in time out and that never works, and so now she has resorted -as of late - to telling her child when she swears at her, "If you talk that way, the devil will visit you at night."

"However," she continued - "every day it still continues - regardless of being told the devil will be coming to see her in the night."

Do you see clearly to the truth? What really needs to happen here? This mother of two has heard many opinions. Can you imagine the various kind of directions and inights she has been given? And does anyone consider the precious hearts tethered by hope to their words? More than cussing in kindergarten is at stake here. A relationship is being molded. A child's heart is being shaped. A mother's influence is being cultivated.

How desperate we are for the way, the truth and the life! How easily we are lost in our own understanding! Every word on which we pivot is so powerful, and deception is so very subtle, isn't it?

"Sanctify them by truth; your WORD is truth." John 17:17