Being REAL...seeing results! :-)

Last week I blogged about being REAL with one another and what that would really look like. 
I had such a wonderful and encouraging response so I want to say thank you to everyone who encouraged me or e-mailed me to tell me that it inspired you to be REAL. That is my heart and my goal for blogging. I want to challenge myself and invite you all to hold me accountable and take different challenges with me. Of course there will be some fun, light-hearted posts along the way too. ;)

So the past week I really reflected on my blog post about being REAL and what that looks like in my own life. I will be honest and say that as soon as I hit "publish" I kind of freaked out. I knew that by me writing that post, I would be held accountable to be real in my own life and I also knew that people would be watching me closely to see how I was putting into practice what I said.

I did not really have an opportunity at church this week to ask anyone how they REALLY were because I was working in the nursery and dealing with two year olds but I still tried hard to love them better than my flesh felt like loving them! :) 

However, saying that I am SO excited to share that I had an opportunity to get realllllyyyy REAL with someone close to me. At first I didn't want to share who the "someone" was but I feel like I need to....well, be real ;) This someone happened to be my beautiful Mom. For a long time now, probably about 6 months there have been some unspoken things between us that had began to cause some hurt and resentment. My mom and I are and always have been very close. I am extremely blessed to have her as my mom and she is my hero in SO many ways! But, let's face it, we ALL have hurts with family members that we don't take directly to them but instead begin to harbor hurt feelings which then begin to turn into bitterness. It's crazy how resentment, hurt and bitterness slowly begin to overcome you and soon you don't even realize how much it's effecting your relationship with that person! That is what happened with us.
There were some things in both of our hearts that we simply did not share with each other but yet we both felt the tension and strain on our relationship. It's sad that we let it go this long but there are lessons to be learned in this. Amen :) 
So Sunday afternoon, while soaking in the sun at her pool (we are so lucky!) we got REAL with each other. It was not necessarily comfortable, fun or easy. In fact, I kind of wanted to swim away several times, hah! But guess what? THERE WAS SO MUCH FREEDOM AND HEALING AFTERWARDS!!!! After we got everything out in the open and shared our hearts with one another, there was an immediate weight lifted off my shoulders. Whew! I did it!!! I was real with some issues that were extremely hard to be real about. It was hard but NOT impossible! :) The end result was hugs, asking for forgiveness and vowing to do better! WOW! :) 

I am sharing this little story with you to hopefully inspire you to go to whoever it may be that you need to just get real with. Maybe it's a parent or a friend or maybe it's a spouse. I am asking you to please allow God to speak to you about this topic of being REAL. I am just an ordinary person but through God's grace he is helping me to conquer this area in my life and I am officially seeing results!

Last night I am excited to say that my mom & I met for dessert and went out to a movie and it was such a light-hearted and different experience than it has been lately. Before our talk, we of course dearly loved each other but we were just surviving not thriving. I am extremely excited because we are now thriving once again and our relationship is only growing stronger. 

This would not have happened if we were not REAL with each other.  All it takes is some swallowing of our pride and stepping out of our comfort zones. I promise you, when you take that first awkward step, God will meet you and help you!! 

So, once again--I encourage you to pray about who it is that God is leading you to go be real with.
I would absolutely love to hear the testimony of what happens! :)
We are all in this together and through CHRIST, we can do ALL things! 

Let's keep it real!
Jessica Renee