Half Truths

I saw this on the sign of a church the other day, "Beware of half truths. You just might have the wrong half." How true that is.

So begins my story about lying. We met friends at Pancho's on Sunday. I noticed that Elizabeth had a little gold ring on her pinky. I asked where she got it. My teacher gave it to me. I began to ask which teacher, why did they give it to you, etc. I started to think that she wasn't telling me the full story, but then I let it drop and thought "we'll talk about this later". I took the ring and put it in my purse. There was something fishy about this conversation.

Then later that day, I probbed some more. The story then became that she found it and she tried to give it to her teacher, but the teacher wouldn't listen to her, etc. I then talked to Elizabeth about how she had stolen the ring because it wasn't hers and that she had lied to me and how disappointed I was. At this point, she was a little irritated with me, not mad, just irritated. Elizabeth's top lip disappears when she gets irritated, just like my dad's does.

We had devotions and I sent the boys upstairs to bed. Elizabeth and I talked some more and I didn't lecture, I didn't yell, I just told her that she had made two bad choices. Then she said, "I have a secret and I don't want to tell you." I told her that she could tell me anything. She then told me that she had found the ring in the drawer of the preschool kitchen and that she had taken it. At this point, she is crying as she's telling me this story. She definitely is full of remorse and I'm debating about consequences. Is the remorse and repentant heart enough or should there still be consequences? I prayed with her and asked God to help her make better choices next time. I told her I loved her and that she was very special.

She was still heart broken. She ran up the stairs and covered her head with the covers and cried. I went into her room and told her that it was over and done. We just need to learn from our mistakes and make better choices next time. She told me that she had another secret...through tears she told me that she and her friend MC went into the bathroom at Pancho's and kept waving their hands in front of the automatic towel dispenser to get lots of towels. Inside I was chuckling, but also think that Pancho's prices are going to go up because of the cost of paper towels! But I told her not to do that again and off she went to sleep.

Then I wondered....Did I do the right thing? Should there have been some stiff consequences for the lying and the stealing? You'll have to read tomorrow to find out the rest of the story....