Authenticity

One thing I hated about my family was our double life. Behind closed doors my step-mother was bitter and angry and every other word was a curse but if a visitor arrived suddenly my step-mother would become all syrupy sweet. She would talk to me firmly but politely. Then after company left her tone of voice would change and she would slap me up side the head and tell me to get out of her sight cause I was making her sick!

It was so confusing to me at first. I had never met anyone before that would have an instant personality change like that. I understood, even as a child, that grown-ups got tired and crabby but this was something else. This was false- phony- deceptive and I grew to hate it. I resolved even as a young child to never pretend to be something I wasn't.

God delights in authenticity.
Psalm 51 says that God desires truth in the innermost parts of my being.
A friend gave me a book of poems once as a gift and she wrote inside the cover
"What you would seem to be--be really."
No conflict, nothing pretentious. It is necessary for inner peace.