"The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise." Psalm 51:17
"There is a beautiful transparency to honest disciples who never wear a false face and do not pretend to be anything but who they are." Brennan Manning, The Ragamuffin Gospel
Be who you are-- before God and before man. He knows the truth anyway. You're not fooling Him. And why would you want to go around trying to fool others anyway? As my friend Lisa Whittle says, be brave and others will feel brave. Go first. Tell the ugly stuff and watch others relax and say, "Oh you too? I thought I was the only one!" That kind of transparency is really beautiful.
7 comments:
What a beautiful family! Stopping over from Psalm 31 devotional today. Enjoy your day.
Jen
Love you Marybeth. You have always given us nuggets of wisdom.
Mama Lu
What a useful message today! We have been taught to physically "hide" who we are. . . make-up, hair coloring, etc. Please don't get me wrong, these are all good things, and I hide just the same. However, I think it's even harder to get comfortable in who we are in our hearts and minds. It is tough to face up to who we really are. For the most part, we are just fooling ourselves anyway. Those we love the most, especially, know the real me. Thanks for sharing.
It's so funny that you mention this. I used to pray sometimes without really saying much, thinking that I was hiding my true feelings about God and others behind some imaginary wall. When I discovered that he already knows all this stuff, it gave me courage to give up the guile and to just be me. I have gotten closer to him through just letting go and being myself to him. And when I am myself to him, I can be myself to others. Great psalm today!
Awesome post today friend. Can hardly wait for our time to make Baklava. :-) Happy Wednesday
Love you and your transparency :)
Awesome! There seems to be a new voice in the world & entering into the church that we are done with phoney, baloney and we want real faith and real friends Thank you for promoting that too. We cannot help others until we are willing to show our own bumps and bruises. Have a great day.
Lina
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