If We’re Honest…

Francesca Battistelli is one of my favorites in terms of music, in one of her latest releases called “If We’re Honest”she talks about bringing our brokenness to Jesus and love can heal what hurts inside.  I have had so many conversations lately that center around honesty and love.The song talks about not pretending to be something that we are not.  Why do we do that?  Comparison and jealousy really get the best of us sometimes.  It takes a great deal of courage, to be honest in every sense of the word.  Honesty makes us vulnerable it allows people around us, to see us.

We are taught from a very young age, the importance of honesty.  Yet it seems to be something we start abandoning from the early years.  Many times we are so dishonest with ourselves we begin to believe our own lies.  They become a reality to us.  The more we bury the truth and we put on facades to be someone we aren’t the further away we move from God’s plan for us.  The further we are from God’s plan for our lives the further we are then from God himself.  This is not because God distances himself from us because we are bad.  He does not say “Oh there she goes again pretending to be someone that she is not!”  It is us that hides from him.  It goes all the way back to the Garden when Adam and Eve hid from God because they felt ashamed.

Lack of honesty makes us feel ashamed.  We need friendships in our lives that speak honestly to us.  I don’t know about you but those are far and few between.  If you have to wonder if what you say will be taken the wrong way or if you are going to offend then that friend may not be as close as you think.  A good friend is willing to look over the walls you build and tell you what you need to clean up.  They can see the brokenness and they will go out of their way to help you to the other side.

We live in a time where we put on fake fronts on social media, we appear to have our junk altogether when in fact it is right inside the closet just on the brink of spilling out (this is figurative, of course) Heaven forbid someone gets too close and they see who we really are.  I grew up in a home that everything looked practically perfect on the outside but told a different story on the inside.  Putting up facades was something you just learned to do.

Heaven forbid that people find out we are not always smiling, we argue and have grumpy days.  Our kids screw up and make bad decisions at times (as did we, maybe we just hid it).  Not everyone in the family unit is walking or living their life the way they should be, however with honesty and a whole lot of grace I have found first hand that God can and will move mountains.  Things that are not revealed cannot be healed.

Why don’t we spend less time thinking about what is going on with others and more time on what is going on with us?  If we want true authentic relationships with our spouse, our children and our friends we need to put a little more focus inward instead of outward.  I spent time with a wonderful and very diverse group of women yesterday morning.  They come from different backgrounds, different cultures, and different churches. I love each of them and the honesty they bring to our relationship.  Our discussion took off to how we were saddened by the loss of real friendship.  How we have become a society that does not talk we text, email or post.  Gone are the days when you just pop over and kick off your shoes, nobody stressing as to the appearance of the house or of oneself!

Friendships that are real, they are deep and they are authentic.  They are not easily offended or put off, they love you unconditionally not to get something in return.  Sounds to me an awful lot like the way God loves us.  Perhaps people would feel more loved if we, would love God’s way.  If people felt more loved maybe they would not feel they had to be something they are not.  I leave you with Psalms 25:21,  My hope is in you, so may goodness and honesty guard me.  Psalms 25 is a prayer for God to guide David.  We need to pray daily for God to guide us.

Until Next Time…