A Shared Memory

"Mom, do you know what one of my favorite memories of having you as a mother is?" I was talking to my daughter on the phone and her question caused me to go into a dream like state as I momentarily went back in time. As a mother I considered creating special memories with my children not only part of my mothering job but also one my my greatest privileges. So in my mind I leafed through some of the special things I had tried to do to create those special memories. I thought maybe it was the time I made her and her teddy bear matching dresses, maybe it was when I took her away for the weekend so we could have time to be just the two of us, or maybe it was the tea parties I had for her and her friends.

"Mom, one of my favorite memories of having you as a mother was when you went to my Girl Scout leader and told her you had lied." Not only was NOT one of MY favorite memories but it was also one I had tried to block from my mind. My daughter continued with her memory, "I remember that the leader had asked if you's signed the permission slip and you immediately replied, 'Yes,' and then went out to the car and signed the paper." Then later you came back and told her that you had lied.

My daughter's memory didn't just include my confession of lying it also included the reaction of the Scout Leader. She told me how the woman had been stunned and how my confession had become a topic of conversation. She was bewildered that I would consider my failure to be honest with her worthy of humbling myself before not only her but my daughter and confessing to the lie that I had told. The question really being asked was what is the value of truth.

What my daughter saw in me that day was not a paragon of virtue because the fact was I was wanted to appear better than I was by lying. I am tempted sometimes to seek refuge in a lie. It's as if the enemy of my soul, the Father of Lies, offers me sanctuary and I take him up on in. However, it is from the heart that the mouth speaks and because I know that Psalms 51 teaches that God delights in truth in the inmost being I pray, "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me."(Psalm 51:10)

Even more than creating memories for my children I wanted to point them to God. Thinking about the memory Elisabeth shared with me reminds me of Micah 6:8 where it says, "O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?"