‘How are
you?’ ‘Good. Wonderful. Blessed.
Great.’ Trite sayings many say far too
often when the truth is nowhere near what we speak. Maybe we’re saying it by faith? Hmmm. Would God ever want us to lie as part of our
faith? That is hard to believe. We can make all kinds of excuses for why we
answer dishonestly including believing the person doesn’t really want to know or
we don’t want to bother them with our troubles, but the truth is, it is deception,
and deception is a part of the enemy’s kingdom, not God’s.
The Devil is a liar and the father of it. Jh. 8:44
Do not … deceive with your lips. Pr. 24:28
Today I saw a
man that holds a ‘higher’ position in the Christian realm who was trying very
hard to be the happy, friendly, open, welcoming man people expect him to be-
and kudos for even trying to meet people’s expectations, but I felt sad that he
couldn’t just be himself. I believe he
is a welcoming and friendly person, but it was like he was putting on this
façade that was covering his true self.
This is one
of the things that bothers me most in Christian circles; the need to cover up
who we really are. So what if I’m a girl
who likes shopping for power tools but not clothes, hates cooking but likes
fixing things, would rather be up to my armpits in engine oil than primping, I
am who I am and God made me with the personality I have. Some people like it, others don’t. I’m okay with that. Overall, I just wish we could accept people
for who they are. (No, we don’t have to
accept bad behaviour though.)
Let us all
rip off the masks and start being ourselves in all settings within God’s
standard of love. ‘How are you?’
‘Shitty, How are you?’ Imagine the genuine care and concern we can
show when we know how someone is really
doing. I wish we could all ‘just be
ourselves’. Jesus didn’t have to wear a
mask, He was real, genuine, truly loving, and aren’t we supposed to try to be
like Him?
Understand
this about me: I will love you
always. If you are born again, I will
love you as my family. If you aren’t
born again I will love you because you are created by my Father and therefore
worthy of love and respect. If you are
funny, happy, spunky, friendly, loving, bighearted, kind and integrious, I will
love you, and if you are boring, miserable, never engaging, cold, untrusting, grumpy,
unreceptive and disintegrious I will love you.
Whether you are these often or rarely, I will love you. Just as you are.
Just be yourself because that is the person I want to
know.
To the pure all things are
pure… Tt. 1:15
The integrity of the upright shall guide them… Pr. 11:3
Do not lie to one another, having put off the old man with
his deeds Cl. 3:9
Therefore putting away lying, let each man speak truth
with his neighbor, for we are members of one another. Ep. 4:25