From my other blog- Wondering about... HONESTY

Someone I love posted a short note this week about honesty. It was a pointed note and one of those posts that makes you think. One of the things said was "Why is honesty so hard to take?"

Wow, that was a great question! Frankly, I would not have even thought clearly enough to ask that question until the last couple of years. No matter how we might try to deny it, honesty sometimes DOES hurt. I certainly have not attained full knowledge of God's plan for any of us, but I do know a few things that He's shown me over the past few years....

He's shown me sometimes it hurts to think that someone doesn't see you as you want them to see you. Sometimes we humans want to pretend we are something we are not. Maybe we are in the process of becoming the way we see ourselves, but that other person just doesn't see it in us yet. Sometimes it's just that our fantasies and the pretend stories we tell ourselves are so real and so dear to us that we can't bear the thought of those dreams not being true. That's another time when Honesty hurts.

Sometimes a circumstance is the tool to make us face the truth honestly, sometimes it's a person and sometimes we just realize out of the blue that we aren't being honest and we force ourselves to face the truth. It takes courage to face the truth, even when we didn't willfully choose to see the truth with our own eyes.

I guess what I've learned thru the last couple of years is that no matter how it happens, no matter how long it takes Him to get me there, God always brings me around to the point where even those hurting times of brutal honesty can work to build me into a better Me than I was before the hurt from the honesty happened.

Given time, even that deep-in-the-pit-of-your-gut-hurt begins to ache less and less. Later down the road, I can usually see that even though it literally took my breath away, the hurt was only temporary. Best of all, the outcome was so much better than what I could have imagined when I was so busy being wrapped up in my fantasies and nursing those hurts that were only temporary.

I have come to believe that God has a way to bring us back to the middle of that path and keeps us walking toward the awesome future that HE sees for us. He continually brings us back to facing the truth about the life we are leading or the future route of the path we are walking, even though He knows that we will suffer some pain along the way.

In those times, it helps to have someone beside you saying "I love you and even though it hurts, you will get through the hard times and see a blessing in God's plan for you." God is so awesome when He sends us friends who both love us and who are "like iron sharpening iron" in our walk.

This year He has blessed me with being a witness to some ordinary-yet-amazing people who are living out their lives in extraordinary ways. He's shown me so much Love and Grace and Goodness through these people. Maybe you know someone who is just like them. Maybe you are like them yourself.

These are folks like the couple I know who are going through a difficult period in their marriage and still have not given up, struggling to stay together through what some would call insurmountable odds to raise their daughters in a safe home. They have real struggles and honesty hurts right now. They're in the middle of that reality check called Recovery-from-Alcoholism.

You might know someone like this other brother-in-Christ I have. He's a former prisoner who struggles with his own battles over depression on a daily basis. His past haunts him at times, his mistakes have impacted his now-grown children and he struggles with financial as well as emotional battles every day. But still he praises GOD for his new walk with Christ.

Then there's my dear, dear friend, whom I've known for over a decade now. She's rebuilding a new life after having lost her husband at a young age to cancer and God is truly giving her BEAUTY from ashes, but her struggles are real and heart wrenching. She's hurting so much and struggling to be everything God is calling her to be but she honestly has doubts sometimes about how she is going to get to where God is calling her to be.

Lastly, there's a young man, very dear to my heart, who is working out his own faith while he's going to school plus working a more-than-full-time-adrenaline-packed-job without knowing exactly where God is going to lead him but he's still pushing through anyway. He has a track record of blessing so many others and he is so loved. I wonder sometimes if he believes it when the Voice of Truth whispers to him that Christ is able to deliver him to the bright future planned for him by the Father. Does this handsome young man hear that Voice of Truth? I pray he does. I can see and hear it so I'm sure he can hear it, too, if he can just slow down long enough to hear.

I so hope they ALL can hear that Voice of Truth! It's very exciting to be here cheering all of them on from the sidelines. I know that God has so many big plans for all of them. I can see the outline of those plans, even though I can't see the exact details of the whole plan that God has ready. Mostly, I can see that God's plan is so GOOD and HE IS FAITHFUL to deliver on his promises!!

These awesome people are showing me their great faith that there IS a better future out there for them. They know that God is good all the time and His plans are to prosper them and give them a bright future. I can't wait to see those plans come to be.

We can all come to see God's plan as the awesome adventure it is. He has absolutely awesome plans for us that we can't usually see when we're in the middle of the hurting times. Maybe that's the ultimate gift that comes from Honesty, to understand with discernment and wisdom that God is blessing you- even when you are feeling hurt by someone else's truthful assessment. Even in the middle of the hurting, there is a blessing just around the corner. We just have to open our eyes and start praying for the wisdom to see it.

Here's to all of us having our Eyes Wide Open!