My 11 year old daughter was excited to show me her latest completed assignment yesterday. She received an A+ grade for her work. I was excited to see the grade and felt joy for her. That is until I read her assignment. Her assignment was to write a manipulative and convincing lie using her vocabulary words, and it was addressed to me.
Assignment
My daughter’s assignment was to use her learned vocabulary words, which included a word “disdain”, and write a letter to me about why I should let her do an activity her mother already told her “no” about. My daughter had to take her mind into a place where she imagined what she would say to convince me to get her way, even after her mother told her no. While I am disappointed in the teacher’s decision to make an assignment such as this, I am not surprised by it. Not at all. I was more surprised that she got an A+ after I found that Cate spelled the word disdain as “distain” after the teacher incorrectly spelled it on her practice paper (below).
Liar, Liar
In my lifetime, I’ve seen plenty of lies. Lies for grades, cheating on tests, lies on resumes, lies in job descriptions, lies in business reports, lies on project status reports, lies in budgets, lies in sermons (usually exaggerations), and the list is unending. Lying is common in our world. Our world lies to us and we have become used to it. We sometimes are surprised when we find the truth where a lie was expected. Have you ever ordered something from a menu and was surprised when the food actually looked like the menu picture? We’ve all lied before, but we must learn that our lives are stolen from, cheated, and sometimes destroyed when we don’t stop lying and learn how to be as God wants us to be.
Deceiving World
In this world, we are conditioned to accept lies as truth, and often think it’s funny when people lie. People make entire careers out of lying, they are called actors and politicians, advertisers, marketers, and psychologists. Comedians are the best ones though, when they trick our minds to follow lies until it astounds us to the point of laughter. The funniest comedians though, deal in truth in the disguise as satire, which the Babylon Bee has become known for.
It is no wonder that lies, white-lies, and exaggerations are so easily accepted in our culture, they have been around for awhile according to our Bible. It all surrounds the evil one, who started it all. When we know satan’s ways, we will know his lies, his schemes, and his evil plan for our lives and stay away from him.
Choosing Truth
My wife (also an educator) confirms the amount of lying she witnesses on a daily basis from her students and sometimes, even the parents of the students. It’s an epidemic. Her kids are often taken aback when she has to tell them her experience with lying kids has made her discernement an extremely valuable tool for doing her job well. She spots lies and she is able to help students learn that lying is a trap but also a choice. We must all choose daily to tell the truth. Even when it is not convenient or comfortable.
The one thing we must remember about our God is, that He never lies (Titus 1:2, Hebrews 6:18, Numbers 23:19, Proverbs 30:5). He is incapable of lying! We should also know that He expects His children to be honest, forthright, truthful, genuine, trustworthy, and committed to truth.
It is also said that there is no truth in satan (John 8:44), who is the god of this age and the father of many who also choose to lie. It should be quite apparent to us all how dangerous lying is to our salvation.
When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.
John 16:13
Thank God we have a helper! It is written John 16:13, that the Spirit of Truth in our helper and will guide us into all truth. This means, it’s time to be discerning. Discern what is good and evil and what is a truth or a lie. We must do our best in each activity to hold onto the truth in our daily lives. We must hate evil and hate lies. I mean truly hate lies! When we see something that does not hold true to God’s word, we must speak out against it and help each other know what is truth. When we do, we will be led into further revelations that God has for us, the things to come, just as it says in John 16:13.
Identity Confusion
For God is not the author of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints
1 Corinthians 14:33
The challenge we are currently facing in education is that of identity. We have kids being educated in ungodly ideas and ways. We have kids questioning what God created them to be, a girl or a boy. The worlds tells them they have a choice to be whatever they want to be. The world tells them they can have sex with whoever (and soon with whatever) they want. The world tells them their genders don’t have to restrict what they want to do. We have men trying to be women and women, desiring to men. It’s the saddest thing I have seen and it is causing great troubles for our human race when we get it wrong.
When children are educated about all the different “choices” they have other than the one they were created as, it can lead them to all sorts of perversion about everything else that is good and right. Once a child goes down the road of questions, which is one meaning of the ‘Q’ in LGBTQIA+, then there is no end to what may become acceptable to them, including drugs, perverted sexuality, worship of false deities, witchcraft/rebellion, and all the rest.
While the Bible says that God will hand those (who reject Him) over to a debased mind, we must know that it is not God that is leading them there – He simply won’t resist their decision. It’s called free will and God loves us enough to honor our free will, even if our decision destroys us. We have choices. As adults, we can make those choices, but as children, we do not yet. It is the responsibility of adults to raise children up in the word of God to know the truth of God’s plan and purpose for our lives and to follow them to an everlasting salvation that Jesus paid for already by His death, burial, resurrection, and ascension into Heaven. We are His.
Children are rebellious by nature. They simply are unlearned and can make bad choices because they don’t yet know what consequences are. As we grow as humans, we learn what is good, what is bad, and try to stay in the good. The evil is where deceived evil-acting people choose to educate the young by perverting minds to think evil is good and good is evil. The Bible is human’s true moral compass. When we leave it out, we easily lose our ability to stay on the right path. When we never learn about the Holy Spirit as our guide, we lack discernment of what is good and right and what is evil and wrong. When we removed the Bible from our schools, which is mostly in place at this point, kids are left wide-open to interpretation of what is good and evil by educators. The Bible prophesied this too. So what can we do?
Therefore give to Your servant an understanding heart to judge Your people, that I may discern between good and evil. For who is able to judge this great people of Yours?”
1 Kings 3:9
Life of Truth
How do we begin to challenge evil? How do we depose it? How do we educate our friends and family to what is good and evil? How do we fight for what is good? While these questions seem lofty and difficult, we must not forget that by our lives we will be judged. Not just by God, but by those away from God while on earth. When we live wholesome, pure, righteous, and live rightly, we can convict their hearts to desire the same. We must show others by being what God created us to be.
While I’m not sure how to address this assignment with the teacher, I do know how to talk about it with my daughter. With love. When I asked her about the assignment, she was already upset. While she liked the grade, she hated completing the assignment. She didn’t like the idea of lying or manipulating one parent over the other. She knew it was wrong. She was also disappointed in the teacher for assigning it to her, which she had to go through a forgiveness prayer to be free of it. Her conviction is enough to tell me she is okay. She know that lying is wrong. She also knows praying against it wherever she sees it is effective. She prays against lying spirits and know how to pray for protection. She loves Jesus, she loves the truth, and she is a strong voice for God in her school. It’s the only reason I would want her to continue in it. To be the salt and light among her friends, her teachers, and for the children who are deceived too. It’s what Jesus did.
We can share the word of God with the world through our very actions, our words, our prayers, and our love for one another. We can preach God’s word by living out what we learned from the Bible and helping those that God puts in our path to help do the same. We are to make disciples of every nation. We also should acknowledge that this is satan’s plan too, but His plan is destruction of humankind and his disciples are deceived, deceiving and marked for eternal death. Let’s do all we can to pull them from the fire!
This is how we start and it only gets more joyful, powerful, and life-altering from here. By picking up our cross (daily), serving others, loving others, encouraging one another on to goodness, we then are leading the lost to God’s door, who is Jesus Christ, through our very lives. Without Jesus we are nothing and we are just liars too, deserving death, but with Him, we can do all things and when we overcome, our names are written in His book of life.
In His Truth,
Darrell
God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
John 4:24