For you formed my inmost being.
You knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I will give thanks to you,
for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
-Psalm 139, WEBBE
Revealing ourselves for who we really are comes with it the risk of being unloved.
When you reveal your heart and open yourself, you may be accepted, or you may not. You may be loved or you may not be loved.
But unless you give yourself and others the chance to love you as you are, all the affection you would ever feel will only be superficial and skin deep. This is because you know that what other people love is not the core of your being but the mask you wanted them to see. Do you really desire to be loved as somebody else and not as you really are?
“Don’t waste your time dreaming of being someone else. Don’t try to be someone else. Work and pray at being yourself. Be who you are, where you are. Concentrate on the little everyday problems and pains that beset you. Reserve your best efforts; expend your spiritual energy on what is right before you. This is what God asks of you. Listen closely. This is very important – and very misunderstood – for we all prefer to do what is to our personal liking. Very few of us choose duty first, or the will of God. Don’t cultivate someone else’s garden. Grow where you are planted.” – St. Francis de Sales
Check Jocelyn's books:
"Of Waves and Butterflies: Poems on Grief", "Mend My Broken Heart", "Questions to God", "To Love an Invisible God", "Defending My Catholic Faith", and more - click here.
(You may freely quote excerpts from this website as long as due credit is given to author Jocelyn Soriano and the website itakeoffthemask.com)