Thursday, July 12, 2012

Be Real About Your Life Often, But First...

So many days I want to post something on this blog, but I stop because it is SUPER tempting to vent and God helps me see this blog is NOT the place for it. I mean, seriously, I began this blog with the specific intent of talking about how women need to be real with each other and themselves. It is such a serious topic, yet it doesn't mean that I think women should get real about everything in their lives to anyone and everyone.  There is discernment and discretion involved in the getting real stuff that I'm speaking to. And there should be grace.

As a missionary and a minister's wife, I have a bunch of things that I think about each day, including a bunch of complaints, disagreements, negative opinions and re-actions which should not be shared with anyone....except on occasion my husband and at all times--my Savior Jesus.  It's a lonely life, sometimes, being a missionary (not trying to get a pity party started, just stating fact). Because we desire to honor our LORD as missionaries, we can't go "dishing" out information we hear. We have to keep many of our thoughts to ourselves and our God. Well, I guess we always can go around sharing things that should be kept private, but we may not have the position of ministry leader for much longer.....at least one that people will willingly follow......and we probably won't have very many friends either. ha! Gossip isn't something a God-fearing person needs to have in the daily routine; not because a human said so, but because God says so.

I find, as a woman who is extraverted--a verbal thinker, I feel it is almost a necessity to get my feelings/thoughts/opinions/stories out verbally just so that they do not get bottled up inside to a point of causing mental stress of great proportion. haha!  And I find, in my job/ministry, keeping things confidential isn't really the issue that's stressful.  For me the issue tends to be more about the reality of not "fitting in" with the crowd--the world I live in--and they are just saying whatever...whenever. It is such a temptation to be one in the crowd....to go with the flow of things....to blend in to the chaos of this world. Somedays I get so weary of living the life of the fish swimming the opposite direction of the current and all the other "fishes". Swimming the other direction, against a strong current is never easy and it takes persistence and strength to keep up the pace to fight the current. Sometimes, I'm not so sure I have the strength or gumption to fight the current of the rest of the world's rhythm of life.

Again, I say, this past paragraph is not written to get some sort of pity from you. I am just being real.  Being real is allowing others to see that you are like them, that you bleed, you have heart-ache, you hunger and thirst, you crave, you hope, you sometimes despair, that you criticize, that you repent, that you surrender, that you bind yourself up, that you fear, that you rejoice, that you love and dream like everyone else.  Being real with people who don't believe in the God is just as powerful if not more.
Being real with someone who doesn't believe in Christ as Savior yet is powerful in a God-powerful kind of way...most effectively when we let others see (as we share our stories and share just how we are feeling) that we are regular people, but we are forgiven and "made new" people. I may act selfishly sometimes, but I know the great God whose love brings me back into a humble attitude before His Majesty.

Life is hard. God knows that. He knows it is hard for us because we humans who believe in Jesus battle a sin nature until His Son Jesus returns to restore the world to it's perfect state. We humans who don't believe in Jesus' salvation yet, have a hard life even more because God's Spirit doesn't live within the mind and heart to fill the emptiness that is there.

Let's get real, being women of truth at all times, but being women of truth with discernment, discretion, compassion, grace, hope and love.