Nothing But The Truth

My Josh is a funny kid. He is a handful, and then some. Don't get me wrong, he is a good kid, but you NEVER know what that boy is going to do. But honestly, it's the things that he says that worry me the most.

This is the boy who sat in Primary class and told one of the parents that had come to substitute teach, "Man, I hate it when you're our teacher." Ugh. And if that wasn't awful enough, when I made him go apologize instead of the sweet "I'm sorry" that I was hoping for, he said instead, "I'm sorry I hate you." (Luckily, this parent has a really good sense of humor, and could just laugh it off.)

He says what he thinks, and he doesn't pull punches, and he doesn't lie.

For example, when his sweet Aunt Paulette gave him a nice, little Valentine's heart filled with candy, Josh said, "Thank you for the heart. But, next time you come and visit me, could you bring me a dinosaur or a super hero instead?"

That boy!

The worst thing about it, as was lovingly pointed out to me, is that in this tendency, he is a lot like me.

I just barely had a conversation with a friend that asked a hard question about herself, and I told her, "I don't think you want to ask me this, because I will tell you the truth." And to her credit she asked me anyway.

Telling the truth isn't always easy. Sometimes it's downright hard. And I will admit that there are times when being brutally honest isn't in anyone's best interest. But sometimes, neither is avoiding the issue, or making polite, noncommittal responses to avoid a disagreement. Sometimes, we are TOO polite. Sometimes, we say nothing, when we should say something. But of course, I have the opposite problem, saying something, when I should say nothing.

But when is it better to be quiet, and when should we speak up?

I don't always know.

So while I struggle with my Josh, and his forthright tendencies, and my own foot-in-mouth problems, I think that together maybe we can both work at learning where the line is, and when to cross it, and most importantly FOR ME, when not to.