Taking an Honest look

October 21, 2008 IOW

Friends, if we be honest with ourselves, we shall be honest with each other.”George MacDonald

Reading this quote reminds me of another similar quote about honesty being the best policy. Honesty sometimes is easier said than done. We blind ourselves to what true honesty is all about. We find it much easier to be what we call “honest with someone else” rather than ourselves. We carry the attitude in our hearts that if people don’t like our honesty then that is their problem, after all we were “just being honest.”

I hear this kind of stuff from my granddaughters all the time, “I was just telling them.” Well sometimes that’s good and sometimes it’s not necessary. But what about ourselves why is it when confronted with something within ourselves we suddenly hide our honesty behind ignorance and self-denial.

It’s interesting to note that organization such as Alcohol Anonymous and others in order to get anywhere first have to convince the people to be “honest with themselves.” To admit they have a problem with alcohol, drugs, sex, food, anger, or whatever. Once that is out in the open they can help them fight what it is they have a problem with.

Unfortunately we like our quiet secluded corners in our hearts reserved to hide what we don’t want to face through honest self-examination. Instead of being honest with ourselves we take on the tactic of blaming others for things going on in our lives. We especially like the “devil made me do it” accusation. It gets the eyes totally off of us. Not really if you take an “honest” look. :)

Years ago during my battle with stress seizures I was forced to take that honest look. I was told I had to deal with those dark secluded corners in my heart. If I didn’t dig in and let out what it was that was bothering me I would have what they called “stress seizures.” Sometimes it was easy to figure it out but other times deep wasn’t deep enough when it came to coming down to the source of the seizure I just had.

Surprisingly enough my stress seizures and I became friends over the 5-year span I dealt with them. They were honest with me by showing me I was burying something that needed to be let go of. Too often we like to cover up the wounds we have experienced, the low self-worth we have attached to ourselves, the pain we are feeling, the unforgiveness we refuse to let go of. When this happens in our heart there they sit, there they fester, there they grow instead of go away.

In James 5:16 we are told to be honest by confessing our trespasses to one another and to pray for each other. It’s not always a “trespass or sin” that we have hidden in our hearts that we are not honest about. Often it’s bad habits or thoughts that we try to ignore instead of bringing them forth to God. Like it or not, as with my stress seizures, often we need Jesus’ kind of honesty from people to build us up, to correct what needs to change, to encourage each other. Something used as a tool to help others and ourselves instead of a weapon to tear down and destroy.

Honesty is the best policy but it begins at home in our own heart. Be careful how you use it or in some cases how you don’t use it.

Be good, be honest, be Godly. Praise the Lord God is honest with us, there is nothing hidden. I’m so glad I’ve given up those quite corners in my heart for Him.

Copyright 2008 Karen J. Gillett @ Pencil Marks and Recipes Publishing