WORD for Today!!

Good morning everyone!! WE are all going to have a BLESSED day. Yes, and even in the midst of storms, you can be blessed!!! Thats what I pray for all of you, that no matter what cir****tances are going on in your life that you would be blessed, prosperous in all that you do, feel God's presence in your life and to be at complete and total peace, no matter what you may be facing or going through!! Today I would like to bring up a topic that I am very familiar with as I am sure that everyone is here. So my question to you all is.......What masks are you wearing today? I consider myself an expert mask wearer. I have for many years and since I was a young child, have worn different masks. Why? To hide the real me from others. These masks were masks of fear, shame, anger, unforgiveness, pride, arrogance, judegementalism etc. I was trying to hide behind masks so others wouldn't see the real me, wouldn't reject me and leave me. I was wearing masks so that I would be accepted by others, make others happy, fit in with people in a praticular group. BUT truthfully, the people I was trying to fit in were opposite of the real me. I had worn so many masks through out the years I never could figure out where the real me was. Unfortunately, I learned to hide "me" during the most vulnerable time in my life, the formative years as a child. SO in a way it became a part of me, how I got through life, how I coped. I used food as a mask, I would use food to cope with life and as a result, I became obese and used my weight to keep others away. Did it work, sometimes, BUT it wasn't the solution. In fact, it eventually worked against me. I had worn so any masks, that when I really needed help, I was so trapped by them that I couldn't reach out to others, afraid of what people would think about me if they know how much I was hurting. The very masks that kept others out, prevented others from helping me. I had become enslaved to myself and didn't even know it. We know in God's word, that he said we are not to become enslaved to anything or anyone. This includes oursleves. (Galations 5:1) I needed to be free from this!!! Jesus spoke about how much he didn't like it when people pretended to be something they weren't. In Matthew 23:25-27, it says: Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, pretenders (hypocrites)! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the plate, but within they are full of extortion (prey, spoil, plunder) and grasping self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and of the plate, so that the outside may be clean also. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, pretenders (hypocrites)! For you are like tombs that have been whitewashed, which look beautiful on the outside but inside are full of dead men's bones and everything impure. Does this mean, that if we wear masks, Jesus doesn't love us? Absolutely NOT!! Jesus loves us so much that He died on the cross for us, so that we may be able to spend eternal life with him. He knows who you really are, on the inside. All he desires is for this to come out, for us to be free, and be the real person he created us to be. Not the person we think we should be, by wearing masks. My suggestion is to work on taking the masks off, one at a time, so that it doesn't change you too drastically and you adjust to the changes. Allow God to show you which one should come off first and he will show you how to take it off. He uses different ways to do this, counseling, group therapy and personal prayer time with him. So I encourage you today as you are going along this WLS journey, that you look at, pray and see if there are any masks you are wearing! Are they helping you or hindering you? I encouage you that as you go through the process of WLS that you take those masks OFF. Afterall, you are going be a different person physically when you reach your goal, why not work on the inside too! I love you all and I am praying for YOU daily!! Lucy