When people ask you in passing "how are you and the kids doing?" I always say we're fine because, really, people don't want to hear anything more than that and really, I don't want to tell them more than that 99% of the time. But I don't want life to pass by without being true to our reality. When I look back and read old family journals I never really get what I'm hoping to find. I don't want to hear the obligatory "everything's fine" answer. I want to know what their lives were really like and how situations made them feel or how they handled different trials that came up. Those are the kinds of things we can learn from and relate to and therefore making these family members more real to us.
That's what I try to do here. I try to document real life here on this blog for my kids to read later and so that they will know what life in the Pratt family was really like. I don't sugar-coat anything with the hope that I can formulate into words (with my pea-sized brain and no writing skills whatsoever) our struggles, triumphs, thoughts, feelings, and emotions. My hope is that my kids will enjoy reading about their lives as children as well as the mental thoughts of their mother and how we handled this journey through this life together.
With that in mind, we've been struggling with our oldest and his troubles with telling the truth. Charlie and I feel like we talk to him ALL THE TIME about how important it is to be truthful. And yet, he still lies. We aren't quite sure why because it will be a really silly thing to lie about like did you brush your teeth, or did you put your homework in your backpack? Other times he'll do something he's not supposed to do, like playing his sister's iPod in his bedroom, and then hide it and lie about it. Or he will go over to his friend's house to play and they end up playing video games when he's clearly been told not to. When he's questioned about it he will lie and say they just played legos the whole time.
It's so frustrating! We've talked to him about how important it is for Mom and Dad to be able to trust him. We talk to him about how Heavenly Father thinks it's SO important that you can't even go into the temple if you lie. We've talked to him about how if he's been known to lie in the past then when he does tell the truth about an important issue, we won't know when to believe him. We've also talked about how he can pray and ask for help in reminding him to tell the truth. We've had numerous FHE lessons on the topic. We have read in the scriptures and in the Friend Magazine about honesty. He, himself, has also taught a few lessons on honesty for FHE. And yet for some reason he struggles.
Finally, the last incident of dishonesty brought me to my knees in prayer. I had prayed before to know how to help Dallin but this time I really poured my heart out to God. And the inspiration came. I had a heart-to-heart talk with Dallin and he opened up to me about how hard it is for him to be honest sometimes and he doesn't want to lie, he just does it because he doesn't want to get in trouble and he doesn't want to disappoint us. I told him that when he lies it's more disappointing than if he were to just tell the truth. I put the responsibility of telling the truth on his shoulders. I told him that if he wants to be perfect at telling the truth he could, he just needs to make the decision for himself. He needs to decide for himself that he's not going to lie anymore. I reminded him that he can pray for help and Heavenly Father will help him.
After that last talk and a two-week suspension from video games, we have not had another incident with dishonesty. I'm not saying we're totally out of the woods because I know that there's a possibility that the issue could come up again, but I'm truly thankful for the guidance from the Holy Ghost that evening to help me know what to say to Dallin that might finally sink in for him. I know that God knows my children way better than I do and I'm thankful that he's there to help me and give me guidance.
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