Transparency

Transparent is to be easily seen through, recognized or detected, to be open, frank or candid.

After I attended the girl's retreat I have seen the need in my life and the lives of us all, actually, to be transparent, to be real with one another.  To stop smiling and pretending that everything is fine when its really not.  A few months ago I met a freshman on the sidewalk and asked him how his day was.  He replied, "Do you want the real or the fake answer?"  His statement struck me and caused me to think about how many times I ask people how they are doing and not really caring how they really are, but just as a conversation filler.  I am expecting a "fine or good" and if I get anything different I am caught off guard as I was with this freshman.  The more we pretend that everything is okay in our lives all the time the more we shut out people and stop investing ourselves in them.  I have caught myself doing this exact thing this semester.  When I have dealt with things I have hid that from most people I interact with and even my closest friends. I guess admitting I wasn't okay and for me to stop smiling would have been to admit that my life wasn't great and that I did indeed have problems.  But isn't that what our brothers and sisters in Christ are for?

"Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.  The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective." James 5:16

I am not saying tell everyone everything about you all the time.  I am just trying to convey that we need to utilize each other for strength to make it through those rough times. Invest in people and they will invest in you.   It is okay to have bad days, but we need to try and not wallow in them, but instead see God's purpose in them.  On the bad days see them for what they are a chance to grow, to depend on God and the people He has placed in our path to assist us and to show us His truth when we might not be able to see it.  I am experiencing this lesson daily.  I am writing this because I am convicted of it and so I can read it to remind myself of what I should be doing to make it through this season of my life.

"I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us."  Romans 8:18