Yesterday was my daughters birthday. She turned 7, and she wanted to go roller skating at the Auburn Skate Connection. I'm not sure the last time you saw some 7 year old roller skate, but it can be quite amusing.
My daughter had been roller skating only one time, so she was a bit nervous about having a skating party if all the other kids had been skating a lot more. As most kids do, she took and inventory of who had skated, and how many times they had. She had one friend that had been once, a couple that had been a few, and one friend who said she had been skating four times.
Faith was a little concerned about the four-time skater. In her mind, that's Olympic material. Here's what I think was going on- the last thing that you want at your birthday is to be the person who is doing the worst. You want to be the best, or just blend in with the others. In the first grade mind, this was a cause for concern.
We end up at the skate rink and it was clear, this four time skater was no pro. Seriously, it appeared as if it was the first time she had ever even seen skates, which is far from the 'four time skater' that she was claiming.
The night went well, we sent the kids home from the rink full of cake and root beer with a goodie bag in hand. On the drive home, the wife tells me that she talked to 'four time skater''s mom and she said this was that little girls first time skating experience.
Hmmm. Interesting. It appeared as if we had someone in our midst that was caught in a wee stretching of the truth.
It made me think- to what benefit is it to this young child to lie to her friends about something that she had never done. Then it occurred to me- its the same thing a lot of people do when they are in a situation when they don't know something. They try and cover it up. For some reason, they don't like other people to know that they don't know something.
I'm sure you've done it. I've done it. There have been recent times when a bunch of guys are standing around looking under the hood of a car and I just nod and agree like I know what they are talking about. The reality is that I know next to nothing about it.
Here's the deal- we all have areas of knowledge that we know next to nothing about. When we are not up front and honest about these areas, we run the risk of not learning or acquiring new knowledge because people think we know.
The nugget? Be honest with others when you don't know something- you may learn something. It may be something spiritual, or intellectual, if you don't know- ask someone and maybe you'll learn something. Don't spend your life trying to 'fake the funk' you could end up missing out on some great knowledge.
Like how to skate.
Blessings
matt
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