Honestly!!

The other day I wrote a blog about masks, and I was relating what the Angels seemed to be telling me about being real. I always thought I was real, but I was made aware of the fact that sometimes I do hide certain aspects of myself from others, and maybe even from myself. I have been working on letting people know who or what I am about, even if I may be ridiculed or ostracized.

In a way being myself has something to do with telling the truth, to myself, and others. I have never been very good at lying, even to the point of telling people about surprise parties and stuff like that. I am just no good at it. So it was no surprise when I received a message from the Angels that one of my missions in life was honesty. The message however, was a little more specific. The message said that I would be coming in contact with someone who was having difficulty with telling the truth about something, and I was to encourage them to be honest.

The message came to me on Sunday, and as I was driving home that evening from the gathering in which I received the message, a possum crossed the road in front of me. How perfect. Possums are known for their habit of playing dead when confronted with danger. "Playing Possum" has always meant pretending to be something other than what you are. In other words, being dishonest. So the message was confirmed. Okay. My first thought was, is someone lying to me? Am I going to discover that someone is hiding something from me? A couple of situations with acquaintances came to mind. However, as it has turned out, the Angels must have gotten the message out to everyone else's Angels whose charges were having trouble with honesty or having secrets that I was available for service. The very next day I was approached three different times with three different situations in which I was given the opportunity to tell acquaintances that it is best to be honest.

All of the issues had to do with keeping secrets. What I have learned from these three separate scenarios is this. Honesty is best, if it is in the best interests of everyone involved. I think that if what you do in secret can't be shouted from the housetops without someone being hurt, then you probably shouldn't be doing it. I think that the cardinal rule of the Universe is love. Is what you are doing or saying the loving thing to do for everyone involved? I think God is pretty much okay with our choices, no matter what they are, as long as no one has the potential for getting hurt. I know that I have made difficult decisions in my life which did hurt others, and I regret causing hurt to others to make changes in my life. However, in the short term the hurt feelings were small compared to the damage that would have been done if no changes had been made. I always try to proclaim to the Universe that any decisions I make are the best ones for everyone involved, even if it is not apparent at the moment. I can't say that I have always made the right choices, but in hindsight we often see how our choices affected others when we had no real idea at the moment.

In some cases, telling the truth is only hurtful and is best kept a secret. I remember one of the most hurtful things that happened to me as a teenager was an incident in which I was in youth group at church and our leader wanted us to go around to each other and confess to each other if we had any malice in our heart toward each other or any secrets. One of the boys in the group came up to me and told me that he resented me because his parents were always trying to get him to date me. He held this grudge that I had no idea about. Looking back I think I would have been okay not to have known that he held a grudge against me for something I had no idea about. Always think about the other person and how telling the truth is going to affect them. Make the decision to be real and to be truthful and honest from here on out, but you have a secret that may cause more harm than good to be revealed, then for goodness sake, keep it to yourself.

There is a verse in the Bible that says.. everything whispered in secret will eventually be shouted from the housetops. This is an encouragement to be real. Never let your actions hurt someone else. If there needs to be a change that may cause hurt to the other person, be honest and talk about it. Sometimes staying in a relationship because you don't want to hurt the other person is more hurtful than being honest and saying the truth. I would not want to be in relationship with someone who stayed in it just because he or she was afraid of hurting me. However, things can be said in such a way to lessen the pain.

Let's all learn to be real with each other, and as long as being honest is not going to hurt someone unnecessarily,then be honest. Let all we do be done in love.