It's You I Like

When Truth is a Distinctive (Part 3 of 3)

This post is my third and final entry on truth as it relates to life, most specifically life in the Covenant Grammar School, both as faculty members and as parents. If you haven’t read the previous two posts, I encourage you to do so.

To quickly review, The Grammar School faculty is considering the phrase, 'Who we are and how it is like for us to act', in our faculty meetings this year. Beyond the obvious and more examined Covenant distinctives of Christian, classical, and Charlotte Mason influenced school, we are looking deeper into phrases and taglines that are readily repeated, but less often deeply explored and thoroughly articulated. Thus far, our discussions have centered around the phrase, 'the good, the true, and the beautiful'. This post culminates our exchange of ideas about truth.

We defined truth as the objective, accurate perception of reality. Despite this being a definition of philosophical truth independent of a Biblical worldview, it is not what is accepted in society today. In fact, in today’s economy, truth is a cheap and fluid currency. It shape shifts depending on how a person feels or thinks about something in a particular moment. Weight and consideration is given to “his truth” or “her truth,” oftentimes with little consideration given to the truth. In the span of less than a century, we have become comfortable with a flexible plumb line that for countless centuries prior would have been unimaginable to alter. Even if this reality hasn’t accelerated in Christian thought and practice at the same warp speed as it has in society at large, it has set up camp and gained more traction than is comfortable to admit.

In my previous post, I posed the question of how a foundational commitment to the absolute truth of God and His Word translates to life as a teacher or parent at The Covenant School. With a bit of cheek, I answered my own rhetorical question by saying in short that it is everything. I walked you through some of the ways we adhere to and champion truth here at school. In the remainder of this post, I would like to steer you through some insights about the intersection of truth and life at home. 

• One reason why truth has become so muddled is because of the onslaught on news and media. Opinions and experts. The good guys and the bad guys. Nothing is plumb and lines in the sand are drawn everywhere. We must remember ourselves, and teach our children, that while we participate in and support leaders in civic and community life, they are not the plumb line for truth…. God’s word is. We live in a flawed and sinful world. While earthly institutions can usher goodness and truth into our societies, they are not the ultimate answer… Jesus Christ is. Do you spend more time discussing the politics and policies of the day with your children? If so, consider continuing in those discussions, but make sure your discussions also outline the beautiful plan and truth laid out in scripture because that is the only sure hope we have in this fallen world.
• Do not allow lying to persist in your house. Children, especially Grammar school aged children, are very prone to lie. Sometimes it is a childish error, statement, or omission. Other times it is a deliberate intention to deceive. Often it is an effort to not get in trouble or to advance something they want or need to happen. When you blithely accept your child’s suspicious tale or lament at face value because you want them to think you trust them, layers of things are happening. And they are not good things. Lying is something I intend to write more about in an upcoming entry, but I will say this now. If you believe in original sin, you must recognize that your child is capable of not telling the truth. Trustworthy children who turn into honest adults do not get that way because their parents essentially “manifested” them into becoming honest people. Honest adults are the product of a childhood where truth was paramount and dishonesty did not advance their cause. Habits of truthfulness were built over years. Dishonesty was not rewarded but discipled and shepherded to the light. In time, those habits and behaviors developed into character traits such as honesty, trustworthiness, and discernment.
• Demonstrate and model a love for truth. Look in the mirror and see places where you have used dishonesty or manipulation to get what you want. Acknowledge that sometimes the reason we don’t go for the “true story” with our children is because we want to protect them from what people could think of them, or even what they might think about us as parents. Ouch! Repent of that mindset both to the Lord and to your children. Re-calibrate the plumb line of your family if it is off-center and receive the grace and guidance God freely gives to His own. 

As believers, we know where truth starts and we even know how it is going to end, but what does it look like in the middle? Like so many things, we can easily begin to just give lipservice to the idea of truth if we do not examine our hearts and our families. The nitty gritty of our life in the middle. The world is saying that finding your own truth is the ultimate goal for freedom. However, God’s holy word, His very breath, tells us the very opposite. John 8:31-32 states that abiding in His word makes us truly His disciples, and that as His disciples, we will know the truth and the truth will set us free. That is where I want to plant my feet and become firmly rooted. I want our school and our community to be lovers of truth firmly grounded in the peace, hope, and freedom that comes from humbly and continually abiding in our Lord.