Transparent & authentic relationships

Yeah, we're back online!  Blogger has had some major issues since yesterday evening, and we ... those who blog using Blogger were unable to get to our Dashboard.  I'm not going to complain, though.  I was happy that they kept the post in "reader" mode for you all.

Technical glitches is a part of  a bloggers life.  Moving on—

Ladies, we need those close relationships don't we?  We all have at least one person, I hope, that we can be transparent with.  That person who knows the real deal us.  Our relationships are there to help us move toward growth and maturity.  I have to think on that often when dealing with some of my "complicated" friendships.  "Love them in spite of."  I whisper.  The hard ones ... the ones that I love, yet have to fight so hard for are the ones that I can now see are the ones that move me closer to Christian maturity.  And they help me understand ... just a little on the magnitude of God's love for me.

Relationships can meet our most deepest emotional needs.  In them we find that we are able to encourage  care for and give to another.  When we meet the need of another in this way we are able to shadow the Lord to another, learning to love one another despite the imperfections.

This morning while reading my journal, I came across an anonymous poem that I want to share with you.

"I keep my paintbrush with me wherever I go, in case I need to cover up, so the real me doesn't show.  I'm so afraid to show you me.  Afraid of what you'll do.  You might laugh, or say mean things.  I'm afraid to lose you.

I'd like to remove all my paint coats, to show you the real—true me.  But I want you to try and understand ... I need you to like what you see.  So if you'll be patient and close your eyes.  I'll strip off my coats real slow.  Please understand how much it hurts to let the real me show.

Now my coats are all stripped off.  I feel naked, bare and cold.  If you still love me with all that you see, you are my friend—pure as gold.  I need to save my paintbrush, though, and hold it in my hand.  I want to keep it handy in case somebody doesn't understand.

So please protect me, my dear friend, and thanks for loving me true.  But please let me keep my paintbrush with me until I love me too!"

"In every one of our lives there's a can of worms.  Believe you me!  There's a skeleton in the closet of everyone who eyes are beholding these words.  And, you see, we can be known or we can be willing to to be known up to a certain point.  That's it.  That's safe, but that is also superficial.  You must love right and in and through that painful area of your life, right in and through that painful part, love right on to the end.  Refuse to let go, though you know everything about that person. ... Fragile love will love up to a point—and that's not worth anything is it?  That's what most Christians experience.  But those who are willing to know and willing to be known to the point where they go crashing right on through that threshold of pain, that's where they really know and are known." ~ Gilbert Tennant, taken from Donna Ottos book.  Emphasis added