If we speak the truth we must put aside falsehood. Part of falsehood is naive, childish dreams. Let me mention three. One, seldom do our children live up to all our dreams for them. Two, seldom do our parents live up to all our dreams for them. Three, seldom do we ourselves live up to all our dreams for ourselves. Be honest. Tell it like it is. Let's have a theology that undergirds it.

When the Bible says, "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God," it is declaring emphatically once and for all that no one is perfect. Our children are not perfect. Our parents are not perfect. And we are not perfect. Each of us needs the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. If we are not perfect how can we expect others to be?

None of us has ever learned how to be the perfect child, the perfect parent, or just the perfect person. That's the truth, isn't it? You know it, and I know it. Let's not just talk about things the way we'd like them to be. Let's talk about them the way they are. We are then freer to come closer to being what not only we would like them to be but what God would like them to be.

If you are a child, allow your parents, no matter how old they are and how old you are, to tell you what they really think and what they really feel, as honestly as they possibly can. If you are a parent, encourage your child to tell you exactly what they think and what they feel, no matter how old or how young they are. If they are free to tell you the truth and you are free to tell them the truth, it doesn't mean that everything they say and you say will be bad. Some of it will hurt. Some of it will be unpleasant. Some of it will be surprisingly good. But I will guarantee you that if you and I are people open to the truth, as unpleasant as it may be in some circumstances, we will be all the more open to the truth as life liberating as it will be in other circumstances.

The Bible tells us specifically that if we have some issue in which we feel we've been wronged by a brother or sister in Christ, we should go to that person and tell them how we feel. Our inclination is to automatically assume that this means people of our own age. I've never heard a minister or teacher interpret this to mean that we should go to our parent or our child if we have a disagreement with that person. Follow the logic.

In many situations, our parents or our children are not only parents or children, they are also our brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ. At that point we are on equal footing, just as we are in husband-wife relationships. We are to be mutually submissive one to another, even as we are to be mutually honest one to another. The last thing you and I want if we are truly honest with ourselves is to be misinformed or uninformed. Isn't that what loneliness is all about. The greatest loneliness in the world is to simply not know the truth and as a result experience broken relationship. Speak the truth.

2. We are to have a Christ-like attitude.

In that same passage of Scripture, the Apostle Paul writes, "Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you" (Ephesians 4:32).