The Broken Lamp

There once was a family of bears, a papa bear, a mama bear, and three little baby bears. They loved to run around all day, playing all sorts of games such as; hide and seek, tag, baseball, and kickball with all of their friends. On one rainy day, the bears got bored being cooped up inside all day, so they decided to make up their own indoor game. While hey were making it up, they got a little restless, not being able to run around and all. So they got up and started to run wild around their room.

While they were doing this, they began to goof around, they got too rough and one of the bears knocked over the lamp in their room. The other two stood there in horror as they thought of what to do. One suggested telling mama, but the other said they should blame it on the wind. The bear who knocked over the lamp was too afraid to tell mama, but she knew she’d get into a lot of trouble because they weren’t supposed to be rough housing in the house.

When mama came into the room and saw the lamp lying on the floor. Her face went from being all smiley, to being stern and unhappy with the broken lamp. She looked from one to the next and stared at the three. “Who broke the lamp,” she calmly asked. The just stared from one another and didn’t know what to do. The one who suggested lying about the lamp spoke up. “I think the wind blew it over, mama.” She looked up quickly, surprised by the response.

She looked around and then asked, “Is that really how it happened?” The look on her face wasn’t as stern, but little bear that broke the lamp could feel her eyes pierce her, knowing that she knew they were lying. So she refused to look into her mom’s eyes. When mama rounded onto her, all she could do was nod her head. The next day, the lamp situation was over, but yet it still ate at the insides of little bear. She didn’t like lying, especially to her mama.

So she confronted mama, and when her dark eyes landed to meet mama’s, she didn’t have the courage to tell her. Later that day, the subject was brought up again, and little bear knew she had to tell her. It was too much to lie. When she had gotten mama alone with her, she began to speak. “Mama, uh…I’ve got something to tell you, but you’re going to be mad.” Mama got down on her knee and looked little bear in the eyes, and said, “What is it little bear. What am I going to be mad about?”

Little bear’s head dropped, she couldn’t meet the disappointment in mama’s eyes as she told her she lied. “Mama, I broke the lamp yesterday. I didn’t mean to lie, but I didn’t want you to be mad at me. It was an accident, and I’m really sorry I didn’t tell you sooner.” Mama put her hand on little bear’s cheek, and raised her head. “I’m very happy that you were able to come out and tell me the truth. I’m not mad that you broke the lamp, I’m mad that you didn’t have the ability of telling me then.”

Little bear then said, “I’m sorry mama. It won’t happen again. I promise.” Mama then nodded her head and said, “I’m very proud of you little bear. Thank you for telling me now just be more careful when playing around. Now go off and play with your brothers.” “Ok mama. Thank you for not getting mad at me.” Then little bear was able to play without the burden of the lie resting on her chest.