Facing the truth can be a very hard thing to do. Sometimes the truth is ugly. Sometimes its shocking or painful. And then there are the truths that we fear having to face, so we run and hide from them for as long as we possibly can. We may make up excuses to hide our truth or simply refuse to acknowledge it. But the wonderful thing about truth is that it can be the one thing that can set us free from what has been holding us back in life.

Acknowledging and owning the truth about ourselves is sometimes the hardest to do. In order to do so we have to face the fact that we are imperfect and have faults. We may have to stare disappointment or shame square in the face. There is a good possibility that we will have to own up to something that we are very uncomfortable with or deeply hurt by. But no matter how hard or painful it may be we have to do it. It is the only way that we can be true to ourselves and not be held back by deception. There are people that have created a alternate reality story that they tell others, possibly even tell themselves, to cover up their truth because they are ashamed, or fear rejection, or feel insignificant in some way. There are people that create fake profiles online because they feel that their truth won’t be accepted by others. Some of the people that have some type of addiction do what they do because it is the only way that they can escape their reality and truth.

We can not love ourselves, have peace, or be complete until we face and accept our truths. But how do we face a truth that we can’t see or just can not bring ourselves to admit or acknowledge? We have a truth meeting with ourselves. We have to sit quietly by ourselves and take the time to explore what is going on inside of our heart. We have to think about our actions and our motives behind them. We have to be honest with ourselves about past hurts, traumas, disappointments, negative experiences, and the effect that they had on us. We have to think about our wrong behaviors and reason behind them. And we have to be honest with ourselves about how we feel about ourselves. Once we are able to be completely honest with ourselves about our truths we can then start to acknowledge, admit, accept, own, embrace some, and grow from others. We can be set free from people pleasing, a judgemental attitude, fear of rejection, and self-insecurities. We can gain courage and confidence as well as humble ourselves. Facing our truths is the only way to really know ourselves. If we don’t face our truths then we are deceiving to ourselves and do not know ourselves as well as we want to think that we do. Many of us have our truth hidden behind so many excuses or blame that we will have to ask ourselves the same questions such as “why is that” or “because” over and over again to get down to the real truth that we have been avoiding. And some of the truths that we may need to face are rather basic but they are embarrassing or shameful to us so we don’t want to admit them. But I know from experience that even when we have to own up to something that we are embarrassed about or ashamed of we have a weight that lifts off of us once we are able to just own it. After all, it is only the truth that can set us free!

The truth that we may need to face about ourselves could be something that seems so simple such as facing the fact that we have bright red hair, buck teeth, are over weight, have big feet, or any other physical blemish that we do not like about ourselves. But even these things can cause us to not like ourselves very much even though it is our truth. We are unable to love ourselves and enjoy our life because we do not accept the truth about our looks. These kinds of truths may be easy for us to acknowledge about ourselves, but we do not accept them, and that causes us to reject ourselves. And if we do not embrace our truths we can not have the life that Jesus wants us to have.

When it comes to deeper truths that we need face such as bad attitudes, trauma experiences, negative aspects of ourselves, weaknesses, and such it can be much harder to come to grips with the fact that we have such things going on inside of ourselves. We have to be willing to be vulnerable and admit that we are not perfect, can’t do something, don’t know it all, have a bad quality, or need to change something about ourselves. These kinds of truths may be hidden behind excuses, blame of others, reasons, or denial and can be hard to acknowledge, admit, face, or own up to but it is imperative that we do so in order to live our best life.

Some of the questions that you can ask yourself to try to get down to deeper truths about yourself are:

• What is the problem/situation
• why is it
• because……..
• why is that
• and why is that
• why, why, why is that…………..

So basically we ask ourselves “why” or “because” behind the answer that we give ourselves until we get down to the root of the cause. For instance, Becky really gets under my skin when she talks about how well her marriage is going. Why is that? I get tired of hearing it. Why do I get tired of hearing it? because it gets on my nerves. Why does it get on my nerves? Because no relationship can be that great? Why do I think that? Because I have never experienced or witnessed it. Why can’t it be so even though I haven’t experienced it? It can be. So why does it bother me to hear of such a wonderful relationship? Because I want to experience that and I am jealous that I haven’t. So my truth is not that I get tired of hearing about it, it is that I have a deep desire to experience such a great relationship.

We have to keep digging into our reasons behind our feelings or actions until we get down to what is deep within our heart. It is only then that we can be set free or make necessary changes to bring about our best self and our best life.