Stop Joking...

Caroline, Hayes, and I were playing a little game of cards tonight, no not a fun game of poker, spades or any other adult game, but an even more fun game of Word World Memory--and Caroline is actually very good at memory if she will pay attention to the game and not try to recite the rules to you constantly. Hayes doesn't really play the game by the rules and it drives Caroline CRAZY. Every time Hayes would pick up a card when it was not his turn Caroline would jump up and say, "Stop Joking, Hayes" really meaning, for him to 'Stop Cheating' but it didn't come out that way. I would start cracking up and she would remind me that breaking the rules 'isn't a joke Mommy' and I would then proceed to laugh again.

I have been working with her on not cheating in games and that there are rules in games, school, at the pool, and in many places that we go and simple rules of life and you have to follow them for a reason. Yes, sometimes she breaks the rules at Candyland and I don't say a word and it isn't the end of the world, but you get what I am saying. We are also working on lying, which is the underlying problem with cheating. If you are cheating, you are really lying, which kids just know how to do. We are born sinners and the first sin we know how to do it lie. So, as we work on these character building lessons I am realizing more and more each day that these lessons are 'Not a Joke' and that they are life long lessons that will be her foundation for life---what a responsibility God has given us!!! As I was reading Proverbs today, I found this and it totally jumped out at me and reminded me that the Truth does endure forever and a lying tounge and last only a moment but can do so much damage in that moment. We must use every moment to speak the Truth...

"Truthful lips endure forever, but a lying tounge lasts only a moment" Proverbs 12:19 (NIV)