When God Speaks

We all struggle with how we appear to others. We want to be liked. We want to be thought well of. We put our best foot forward most of the time. But, do these wants come with a price? If we lie about something or stretch the truth (which is a lie, btw) to appear how we think others we believe would accept us more readily then we will pay a cost. Could be a number of ways such as being riddled with anxiety that the truth will come out or being stressed trying to fill that image or being dishonest about things we have done because of shame. These and many more make life miserable. Then, the fact that we have to carry that lie around is overwhelming at times. Life becomes a burden.

The thing is that people, all people, love transparency. Someone can only relate to another if they have something in common. You see, we all make mistakes. We all have things in our past that we wish were not there, but those things are what draws others to someone. When we see or hear that we are not the only one that has made a mistake or two, we feel relief. We feel free to talk and share our own struggles because we know judgement is off the table. It brings hope that life can be better and that dirty little deed strinks in size.

Transparency is a wonderful way to live. It will take courage to look in that mirror and strip everything false away, but the pay out is worth it. Once we have looked long and hard at the person staring back at us, we feel as though we can soar the sky. Carrying less baggage around is an indescribable feeling.

The truth is most of the time others see through our smoke screens anyway. The only person we are fooling is ourselves. On top of that, we have to remember the lie in case we are ever asked about it. Much ado about nothing is what is going on. We have made a mountain out of a mole hill and we are exhausted.

Life will have it’s share of problems. That, you can take to the bank. The thing to remember is you are not alone. Everyone goes through this. The difference is, ‘Will you take your problem, struggle, sin, etc and learn from it by becoming transparent with no smoke screens out front? or ‘Will you continue piling on baggage until the strain of it breaks you?’

Take notice. Do you enjoy people that are transparent more or those that hide behind smoke screens? Your answer is the same as everyone else’s. Relationships flourish with transparency and relationships die with smoke screens. Ditch the screens and live free. Life offers no do overs.