Stretching the Truth - Character MOMent #8

"When you stretch the truth, watch out for the snapback." ~Bill Copeland

Teachable MOMent #8  - Write the word TRUTH on a wide rubber band, and your child put it on as a bracelet. Ask them, "What happens when you stretch 'the TRUTH'?" To find out, have them slightly pull on their bracelet enough for it to snapback.

Stretching the truth causes pain and problems. Satan, The Father of Lies, is extra active at this time of year trying to convince us to ignore the dangers of "stretching the truth" through little "white lies" and "half truths". Have your kids give you examples of each of these.

A half truth is a whole lie. What should we do if we are not sure if something is completely true or not? Check the source.

The Scriptures are our source for absolute truth.  Before the invention of the printing press and multiple translations of the Bible, the common man was not as blessed as we are with easy access to God's Word.  Therefore, there was some confusion in the church about what God expected from believers.  The church had started "stretching the truth". They said such things as,

Truth - You need to ask God to forgive you of sin. (Rm 3:23)
Stretching Truth - You have to pay "indulgences" (money to the church)
      in order to gain forgiveness for you or your family's sin. (Acts 10:43)

After studying the Scriptures,  Martin Luther found 95 things like this that the church was doing that stretched the TRUTH of God's Word! So on October 31st, 1517, Luther posted 95 Theses on the door of his church for all to see -beginning the Reformation! 

This took extreme faith and courage!
Encourage  your kids not to stretch the TRUTH,
but instead stand up for absolute TRUTH the way Luther did
and to have a Happy Reformation Day on Wednesday!

How are you going to watch out for half truths and white lies this week?