“He did deliver me from bondage” p.71-72, Day 3


Day 3: A prophet is willing to confess his sins in public. 

“How do I think it might help others – my children for instance – to know that I too have struggled with temptations and even sins similar to the ones they struggle with?”

I have often thought about the pretentiousness that people try to portray themselves as ‘perfect’ and how it keeps us from being honest with ourselves.  I think it is a lack of self-confidence that we think we have to be ‘puffed-up’ to show others we really do have worth and are important.  The thing is that if we really felt that inside then we would not feel the need to show it to others.  There is one way through this gate and that  is through Christ.

So to answer the question: 

Life is hard and we need each other’s support and love to get through it.  In the past I have not really felt that from others.  It is just recently that I am gaining the capacity to both give and to receive this love.  I literally feel it give me power.  I told a friend yesterday that because of friends it feels like I have a bungie cord around me now so that now I can jump!  Showing others our true selfs, even confessing our wrongs and mistakes, shows them that a person does not become weaker in the eyes of others when we are not perfect.  I can’t remember where I read it, but somewhere it said that these qualities make us endearing to others and they love us more because of it.  We all know we are ALL not perfect, yet we insist on putting on this Sherrod.   There is a perception of reality that is projected when we do this.  CS Lewis described it as the Inner Ring.  Lehi described it as those in the great and spacious building laughing and mocking so that others felt ashamed.  It is real and we live it.  When we are honest with our selves and others in openly admitting our mistakes, we show others that we know we are not perfect.  We show our children that it’s ok to make mistakes, and that we can learn from them.  They then feel no need to play the game of the Inner Ring because we have truly let it go.  If my children know that I have struggled with the same challenges they struggle with, I think they will listen to me more knowing that I have overcome them and can help them to overcome them too.  They will see me as real and genuine.

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