  urlLink Devotionals:  Moments Together for August 4 -  FamilyLife -  Strengthening families,  marriages and relationships :  "
Reversing 'The Great Cover- Up' and becoming open and dropping your guard with others can be risky.  It requires a high level of trust,  and the willingness to accept the other person no matter what his or her transparency reveals.  But the rewards of transparency make it worth the risk.  True intimacy is enjoyed only by those who are willing to be seen as they really are.
 When people read my thoughts either here in this journal or in my other sites,  the response that I often get is that they feel like they are " eaves dropping"  I'm quite honored by this,  because that means that I'm achieving the kind of openess and transparency that I'm aiming for.  We are often so closed off from each other in this world,
 that it is so hard to get to really know one another. feeling so ashamed of our interior being,  we feel like putting on a facade is the only way that we will be acceptable to others.  The harm in that is if we only interact with "  perfect people"  when we hurt we feel like we are completly alone,
 like no one else can possibly know what we are going through and therefore we must keep quiet.  So it is a viscious cycle,  with no one willing to open up and each person living in their own darkness.  I had the most amazing experience last night.  As we relaxed in the hot tub after a wonderful day together,  we started talking.
REALLY talking. about all the nitty gritty little details of our childhood. some things had brought us immense pleasure but there were somethings that we shared that we each had been carrying with us for quite some time. in a few cases all that was being brought forth was little more then a dark feeling without exactly knowing where it got its beginning. but as we spoke the darkness lifted. each person contributed view and insights into the situations that alone we could never grasp.
 It was trully Spirit Filled and an awesome example of what 'transparency' allows us to experience.
