Real

I mentioned in the last post, the next would be a positive one. This will be, but it's not the same post I had in mind... that will come after this. I just felt I had to say this first.

The last post was upsetting, depressing... but, it was real. Real. I know a lot of people probably don't agree with my opening up my life to the world. A lot of people probably think I shouldn't be sharing the majority of what I share or in the ways I share it.

But here's the thing. I received a number of replies both publicly as well as privately that showed me people can relate. And just as that made me feel like I'm not alone, it would do the same for them. There was a reason to connect, a reason for support, a reason for compassion, especially a reason for prayer. How would that have happened if I continued to bottle it all in? Not only would I cause myself to become depressed, others out there wouldn't have a clue I'm going through this and couldn't relate as well. It could become a waterfall effect in a negative regard.

What about with my health? It's the same thing. I've had countless people contact me asking about lyme disease or MG because they or someone else they know had been affected or had symptoms and didn't know where to turn.

And divorce? Stepfamilies? Ministry life? Etc? Same thing.

Opening up allows others to relate to you. Opening up allows others to see you are real. Opening up allows others to see just because your facebook photos are all happy you really don't have it all together.

I started this blog about 4 years ago. At the time, my husband at the time had separated from me in a very cruel way, and wanted a divorce. About to turn 30, I moved back in with my parents. Along with that I was facing a major surgery and then complications from that surgery. My life was a downward spiral.

Imagine if I didn't share any of that, if none of you knew even one bit of it. Imagine if I made myself out to be someone who had it all together, who blew through those trials in life without struggle, or didn't even have a struggle as if it didn't affect me. You'd probably feel like wow, she's really got something I don't and I can't live up to that. You'd probably be completely unable to relate to a perceived perfection no one can truly attain. The glory would go to me when it shouldn't. And while in the process, no one could relate. But I didn't hide it, I shared it- pretty much all of it. So you knew where I came from, and you know where I'm at today.

Opening up... allows others to see God working through us.

Today I'm blessed to be married to a wonderful husband with a baby on the way. Of course it still comes with many trials, but I'm so far from where I was years ago. And how did I get there? Him. It was all Him. God truly can take a mess and turn it into a message as they say. He can truly take a test and turn it into a testimony. But it can't become a testimony if you don't share it, if you don't let others into your inner life. And most importantly if you don't turn your life over to Him.

Christian or not, we will all face trials. Christian or not, no one is perfect. But having Christ in your life changes your world for the better, regardless of what the world entails. And allowing others to see Christ working through you, can cause them to want Christ in their life also. And isn't that what this life is all about? Him. Don't hide the work He is doing in your life. Let others see it. Let others see that yeah maybe this life is a mess, but you have the perfect God who can sort through it.

9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 2 Corinthians 12:9-10