Your son rushes into the house after a Saturday afternoon of futbol with his friends. He’s covered in dirt.

 “I’m going to take a shower and then will be going out with my friends for the evening. Is that OK?”

You’ve had to work hard all Saturday morning & all you want to do now is relax at home without any employee or customer complaints. “OK, have fun. Be careful.” What a wonderful son you have! He’s respectful; tells you what he’s doing. Life is good.

At 4:00 in the morning you’re wakened by the phone ringing. Your son needs a ride home. He’s been drinking and is unable to do anything for himself. Why didn’t you ask your son where he was going, what he was going to do, or even set rules of what he could do and a time when he had to be home? Why didn’t he tell you the entire truth of what he was going to do with his friends? Trust has once again been destroyed!

This was the very first problem explained in the Bible. Satan came to Eve and said, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” And Eve said, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ” Satan said, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Genesis 3) Satan was able to speak part of the truth in order to get what he wanted. And we are all masters of this deception – you – me – our children!

There’s a major religious sect in our city that has taken this deception of Satan even further. Not only will we become like gods, but we can actually become a god. The first of the Ten Commandments tell us there is only one God and He is a jealous God.

Are we teaching our children to be master half-truth tellers? The apostle James tell us to let our “Yes” be yes and our “no” be no. As an employer I wanted the entire truth from my employees. Those were the ones I trusted and gave more authority, responsibility and pay. Let’s make every effort to model truth to our children and expect truth from them.

None of us are perfect as individuals – nor are our marriages perfect.  As we work together to maintain our love and a strong marriage, our homes will be a good environment for growing and happy children.