This is a tad long, but I felt led to share this little story.
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I remember when my daughter was in middle school, and I dropped her off in the earlier hours because I had to be at work early. As she stepped out of the car, I conveyed that she go immediately inside the school cafeteria where she would be safe. Waving goodbye, I watched her head toward the entrance of the school as I drove away.
Suddenly, I had that “mother’s intuition” and turned my car around to go back and check on her. She was standing outside with a group of other kids, and as soon as she spotted my car, started running over to me. Breathless, she began explaining why she had not gone inside like she was supposed to. Putting my hand up, I stopped her in mid- sentence and instructed her to turn around and go inside like I’d originally told her, and that we’d discuss the matter later that afternoon.
She probably dreaded that conversation the entire day. And was no doubt surprised when I approached the situation with complete calmness. My son, Lucas, was in the back seat of the car when I picked her up, with no inkling of what was about to transpire.
I didn’t say a word to her as she got in, making a point of letting her begin the conversation. Here’s how it went down:

Rylee: “Mom, I’m sorry about this morning. I was only planning to stay outside with my friends for just a few minutes.”
Me: “Rylee, when I told you to go inside, I trusted you to do as I asked. What you may not realize, is that you start out with 100% trust in this life. But every time you betray that trust, your character will be in question, and your actions will diminish that trust little by little. Trust is much easier to keep than to regain after it’s lost.”
Lucas: “So are you saying you don’t trust Rylee anymore, Mom?”
Me: “I’m saying that the next time I asked her to do something, I will not trust her a 100% to follow through, or believe what she is telling me. I might trust her 95%…but none the less, not I like I did before. And every time that trust is taken away, our relationship will change.”
Lucas: “Mom! You still trust me 100%, right? ‘Cause I always tell the truth and do what you say!”
At that point, my daughter turned to give her brother a look of “Just wait until I get you home alone!!”
My reply to Lucas: “Yes, I do trust you 100%, until you do something to take away that trust.”
Rylee: “Mom, I’m really sorry. What can I do?”
Me: “Don’t lose that 95% trust. And eventually you can rebuild it, but it will be harder for me to give my trust to you. Just remember that as you go through life!”

I didn’t ground her, and we went for ice-cream. The lesson wasn’t about her getting in trouble, it was about the lesson itself.
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I know we’ve all had our fair share of lies. The little “white” lies…the big “betrayal” lies. As a young adult I lived my life with deception, losing trust from others and to others, because of those lies. As a “mature” adult, I now know that when we lie to others, it hurts us as much as those we lie to. And when lied to, it puts us in a dark place where light is hard to reach.

Make no mistake, it is completely a moral choice to tell lies…on any level.
And there’s always consequences.