Thank you to Holly for this amazing opportunity to explore my Spiritual Journey every week!
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Authenticity. Real. Ugly. Truth. We cover this up on social media. We show pictures of success and clean houses and smiling kids and cute dogs on social media. I do this. Some people complain about that. I don't think there's anything wrong with posting about our joy and our success, but the unavoidable consequence of that is believing that as the whole truth, when it's not. I will not post a picture of my sink filled with dirty dishes (but know that it's there). Authenticity. Real. Ugly. Truth.
God loves us. God loves me...just as I am. God loves you...just as you are. What powerful words!! We all have the ugly moments. That's a time when I turn to God. That's when I let it go (or try to) and believe that God will work it out...or God will work ME out.
That's where life really is. I love that Holly picked this topic! It's as if she read my mind, since I've been thinking about this a lot lately! Being authentic is hard. People put on their best faces and for a long time I was gullible enough to believe that was their entire reality. I know now, it's not. We all have the ugly. The messy house. The temper tantrums. The failures. I think I needed permission to be human, messy, ugly, and to fail sometimes.
I feel like every single book I'm reading lately is giving me permission to do this...be real and authentic and know that I will still be loved! I am going to share some book recommendations to help with this.
Two women that I admire for showing their hearts to the world are Jen Hatmaker and Glennon Doyle Melton. Their books show what it's like to be flawed and to love deeply, to fail and know that God loves them. When I laugh reading their words, it's usually because I'm thinking, "ME TOO!" or "I thought I was the only one!" Being authentic connects us and reminds us that we are all messy humans doing our best. The book I am reading now is all about LOVE. Bob Goff wrote this powerful book called Love Does. He writes about life in such a real and honest way and all of his words are filled with love!
The best part of being these messy, ugly, real people is we are LOVED and we love the best we can. Reading books about these amazingly authentic people show me that we are all doing the best we can and if we see through eyes of love, the world looks to be a beautiful place!
I'm so glad this topic resonated with you! I love this line: "...if we see through eyes of love, the world looks to be a beautiful place." So true - part of the reason we don't always open up is that people are quick to judge. We need to be both open and forgiving to others for this to really work. Just like Jesus! I love that we both mentioned Glennon Doyle Melton. I'm going to check out the other two!
ReplyDeleteEnded your post on a note of positivity-wonderful! Thank you, Michelle for the links to the authentic people who keep it real for us.
ReplyDeleteHi, thank you for sharing these books. I am going to check them out and read them. Being real and true is so hard. We don't want people to see us when we are vunerable.
ReplyDeleteHeyyy! You and I just mentioned this concept to each other earlier this week! =)
ReplyDeleteOur stories, ugly, real, and true connect us, make us human, and make us flawed children of God. I'm glad you are in my life.
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ReplyDeleteI like this line...."and believe that God will work it out...or God will work ME out"...