Liars don’t always avoid eye contact or give other body language clues to their deception—sometimes they look you straight in the face and speak a falsehood without mincing words. It comes so naturally, sometimes. When I catch the kids in a suspected lie, I remind them of three things before giving them one more opportunity to tell me the truth:

1)     Sin will get you into trouble, but lying about it will always get you into more.
2)     I’m not stupid, so don’t insult my intelligence by trying to deceive me.
3)     The truth will be found, which brings us back to #1.

We could all learn a lot about the consequences of lying from the first couple, as their story unfolds in Genesis 3. Adam and Eve had just eaten the no-no fruit and were trying to hide their sin from God. In verse 9, God called out to ask where they were (duh – as if he didn’t already know). Adam spoke first and told God a half-truth that he had hidden because he was embarrassed and afraid. He conveniently left out the part about eating the fruit.

When God inquired further, Adam shirked the blame again. Oftentimes when we hear the tale of Adam & Eve, we hear that Adam accused Eve for making him eat the fruit. Verse 6 already tells us that Adam was right there when Eve ate the fruit, and he willingly took some from her. What’s ironic is that at the heart of his excuse, Adam actually blamed God. Check out verse 12: “The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it” (emphasis mine). So, it wasn’t just the serpent’s fault for tricking Eve, and it wasn’t just Eve’s fault for sharing the fruit with Adam; he tried to eliminate himself from the blame game by reminding God that it was his bright idea to put that woman there, in the first place!

Sometimes I wonder how the story might have turned out differently if Adam and Eve had simply come clean and fessed up right away. Personally (and this is my own opinion), I believe that God still would have sent them out of the garden as punishment for their sin—clearly, they disobeyed him—but, I think he might have relented on the added penalties for Adam and Eve. (Or, perhaps I am just wishfully thinking about painless childbirth.) Regardless of what could’ve-should’ve-would’ve been, the fact remains that Adam and Eve sinned and tried to cover up for it.

What a sad foundation for the first couple to build their family on, and yet, each one of us – in our own ways and with our own version of the forbidden fruit – has also sinned. Will we come clean before God or continue trying to make excuses for our failures?