Shaun Groves
The story goes that there was a girl who lied a lot.
She broke her mom’s favorite vase but said the dog did it.
She threw a ball through the kitchen window but blamed it on an asteroid.
She didn’t have her homework ready to turn in but told her teacher it was lost in a house fire caused by a volcanic eruption nearby.
Her mom finally had enough of all the lies and banished her to her room upstairs for half a day!
While there, a storm suddenly kicked up on the horizon. And from it a swirling gray finger dipped down toward earth.
“Tornado!” Dad yelled from downstairs. “Everybody to the basement!”
But his daughter, fuming inside, shouted back, “I don’t believe you! That’s not funny!” and stuck her tongue out at the air.
And that’s how one little girl moved from a house in Tennessee to a treetop in Kentucky without packing a change of underwear first.
People who lie think everyone is lying.
And then, “I love tomatoes!” Sambhaji shouted. Because this story has zero impact on a five year-old who has half a grip on English but a mastery of making things up. But it works wonders on eavesdropping sisters.
She confessed. I absolved. And then she requested to be tucked into bed extra tightly. Just in case tornados are less forgiving than fathers.
brad says:
Nice. :^)
Amy says:
Ha!
Beth says:
And I’ll bet she has a change of underwear in her hands at all times from now on!
donna says:
brilliant … and beautiful.
what a wonderful daddy!
amy says:
That is awesome.
Shaun Groves says:
Until therapy ; )
Sara McNutt says:
This is soooo true! I’ve often thought this. Ravi Zacharias tells this story (I’ll shorten it):
A little boy and girl were playing. He had his favorite candy. She had her favorite marble. He asked her if she’d like to trade one for the other. She said she’d think about it. While she thought he switched out his favorite for another one. When she came back she agreed to switch. But that night as he lay awake all he had on his mind was, “Did she switch her candy too?”
(He tells it MUCH more impactfully. Obviously.)
Anyway, the point being that when we lie or cheat we always assumed we’re being lied to and cheated.
Sad place to be.
Shaun Groves says:
Great story! I’ll steal that and retell it as my own often ; )
Someone recently interpreted something I said in the worst possible way. People who knew me couldn’t understand how this person reached the conclusion that they did about me. And my wise wife suggested that maybe if that person had said what I said they would have meant it the way they think I meant it.
Our broken parts come out into the light eventually don’t they. Scary. Better work on my own broken parts before I get found out.
mj says:
You know, I disagree. Some people, abused children, have been lied to, this does not translate into them being liars too, for the rest of their lives they cannot trust that people aren’t lying. (I am called a joke-killer at home, I hope that I didn’t just kill something funny here.)
Sara says:
Actually, these children who have been abused and lied to DO become liars more often than not. Every single child out of the 12 we’ve had in our home that were old enough to communicate have lied about even the stupidest simple things. Their parents, who have come from the same backgrounds will lie right to ours and the caseworkers faces as well, even though they know that we know they are lying.
It’s a sad cycle. You lie, therefore you don’t trust. You don’t trust, therefore you lie.