Will B.

I recently read “Your Mom Has a Blog,” a weekly column by Melissa Edgington. The story that week was entitled “You Can’t Fake a Clean Heart.” It really struck a chord of truth for me as do many of her insightful articles. It had to do with how we hide how we are while putting forth a clean and shiny front, much like some of us do when we have company, cleaning the house and hiding the mess of life.

I am as guilty of this as much as anyone; it’s just how I was raised but is it really the right thing to do? We are all born with flaws especially in our daily walk as Christians. Mrs. Edgington did a great job explaining it in her article and I will do my best to add to the thoughts.

I think the reason so many like to point fingers at Christians as being “Holier than Thou,” is because we don’t show our messes enough. Sure, there are some Christians who portray themselves as perfect and what not, but I am speaking of Christians. We are all born of sin. We all make mistakes but what makes a Christian different is we admit it, ask for forgiveness and work towards doing better.

That forgiveness is so profound it relieves us of the guilt and erases the sin, so it may appear to some that we do not have sin, but in fact when we are forgiven, we don’t give it another thought.

Back to the point, maybe we need to be more vocal or reveal our messes more so others can see we aren’t living a perfect life. They can see how freeing forgiveness is, what a miracle it is.

Life is messy and being a Christian is even messier. They are not meant to look perfect. Walking a Christian life is harder than living as a nonbeliever because we are held to a standard that Christ has shown us, which almost always means taking the harder road and making the hard choices daily.

When we make a mistake, as we will surely do, we go to God for forgiveness and work hard to make the right choices. It’s okay to show how we sinned or show our messy homes. Life isn’t perfect and it may be what someone needs to see on the right day.

Titus 2:7 “And you yourself must be an example to them by doing good works of every kind. Let everything you do reflect the integrity and seriousness of your teaching.”

I believe we need to show our faults as an example of God’s forgiveness and how it can free us daily.

This is Will B saying, life is messy and sometimes it’s good to let other people see our messes.