Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as He is righteous. 1 John 3:7

“Deception never produces good.” Mrs. Child, “The Mother’s Book”*

I always think about deception at Christmas time. Neither my husband nor I came to know the Lord until our children were pre-teens. At our house Santa was “real” for the first several years of their lives.

My children were incensed when they understood the truth that we had deceived them for so long! Since that time we were careful about what we told them.

In her book, “The Mother’s Book,” written by “Mrs. Child” in 1831, Mrs. Child addresses deceiving our kids (she would have said “children,” not kids).  She starts with the bigger picture of the whole family saying, “Let your family never hear trifling deceptions glossed over by any excuses: speak of them with unlimited abhorrence and contempt.”

She is advising us not to tolerate lying and then making excuses for that lie in our children. But she continues to point out that there is a lot that is learned from us that we do not intend to teach.

To her reader, individually, she says, “Above all things, let your own habits be of the strictest truth. Examine closely! You will be surprised to find in how many little things we act insincerely.”

She ends the section with, “Deception never produces good.”

This needs no more explanation. Her point is well taken. Our children will do what we teach them…whether we teach them intentionally or unintentionally.

Mrs. Child’s most convicting words are, “Examine closely!” Many of us are deceiving someone (children, husbands, parents, siblings, bosses, co-workers, ministry friends, etc.) in a way we may not see when we do it.

Most Christian parents would not intentionally deceive their children. Trying not to remember when I did it (other than Santa), there was a time someone else did that surprised us.

Our son was invited to go home with a new friend from church just after we started attending a Bible believing church. The family stopped for lunch on the way home. The father told my son to say he was a year younger than he was so his lunch would cost less. It was the first thing our son reported when he got home. We had been deceived by their roles in church thinking our son was going into a godly environment. We were wrong. His “visit” with a friend turned into a teaching moment.

“Acting insincerely” is an interesting phrase that I presume meant that the parents would say one thing but do another (like our church acquaintances). For example they teach the children to “love your neighbor,” but fail to take the time to check on the widow next door or provide help when it’s needed.

Children are paying attention all the time. Even with adults, “deception never produces good.”

Kids understand more than we give them credit for. So, let’s listen to Mrs. Child and “examine (ourselves) closely” and pray that the Lord would show us if we are deceiving our children by “acting insincerely.”

*The Mother’s Book,” Mrs. Child, Carter and Hendee, Boston, Mass., 1831