| What’s the most challenging aspect for you when it comes to becoming your true self? In an age where the pressure is to be someone we are not, the confident call from God is consistently to be before we do. Becoming Real They turned towards me and looked at me directly. Right in the middle of a group coaching session, a man started talking slowly. He said, “Being truly authentic means being known for who you really are, not just the good parts of your life, but also the raw, vulnerable, and broken sides of you…” This man, is no ordinary man. He has had a fair share of achievements many of us would not even dream about. I could feel the room getting tense, like an invisible thread connecting everyone’s thoughts and feelings. I shifted my attention to the rest of the group and asked, “What scares you the most about showing the most vulnerable sides of you?” We all held our breath. Answers would soon come flooding in, and so would our world too, to a sharing of thoughts, stories and emotions. The Power of Community Now, sometimes we can be tempted to think that we really can try to do it all, and then we fail miserably! But listen to what Scott Peck wrote about the power of being in a community: “How strange that we should ordinarily feel compelled to hide our wounds when we are all wounded! Community requires the ability to expose our wounds and weaknesses to our fellow creatures. It also requires the ability to be affected by the wounds of others… But even more important is the love that arises among us when we share, both ways, our woundedness.” We Are Better and stronger Together Perhaps it’s true that the best things in life come in small doses of love.And that every mama needs a girlfriend (or two), no matter the age – and it’s the sprinkle of friendship that makes life wonderfully rich, and helps you to weather through any storm.Yeah, there’s no illusion to it: relationships can break you, and people can very well hurt you, but it’s also relationships that will heal you, and love that will mend you.I remember it now, how I was a recipient of those simple doses of love, those sprinklings of grace.It was a couple of summers ago. I’d sat down with my girls promising these lovebirds that we’d sew yarns and strip wools into a dolly.By 10 o’clock, I was lost. I wanted to pull the doll’s hair out and pull my own hair out. Read more here… “Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works.” (Hebrews 10:24) The making of an extraordinary life — Springs from the out-making of one ordinary heart, even if it’s just one day at at time. Perhaps it starts with a moment of insight, a single seed of hope, then a determination. One baby foot forward, another baby foot follows, and before you know it, you’re walking towards the life you yearn for, transcending the life you’ve known for. Making a successful tomorrow begins with owning our day *today*, whatever that today looks like… |