Sunday, February 17, 2008

The beautiful mask

We went to church for the THIRD SUNDAY IN A ROW today (gasp!). It was really nice. W did well in the nursery, which is a blessing. The hymns were beautiful (old ones, the kind I like). The minister's message was relevant. He's doing a four-part series on character. Today he talked about what it takes to build character, as well as how to evaluate one's own character. I won't go too into detail, you can go to this website to see more on what he said, but one thing he said really stuck in my brain. He repeated an excerpt from a C.S. Lewis book, Mere Christianity, that I was familiar with but had never read, but was really able to appreciate. It goes something like this: There was a dude who decided to wear a mask every day. It was a mask that made him look beautiful. Everyone who met him thought he was beautiful. After a few years of wearing the mask (a little weird), he took it off, and VOLIA! He was beautiful. That reminds me of a saying we had at Anorexic Camp (Renaissance): Fake it 'til you make it (if you go by your program and eat what you're supposed to eat and do what you're supposed to do (be assertive, control anger, whatever), you will eventually believe/become your recovery plan). The same goes for character. If you believe you are a good person and have good values and show those traits to others, you will eventually become that person. What you show to other people is who you are. Make sure you are showing the person you really are and the person you want to be.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

i love the person you are. thanks for loving me back...