Taking off my Mask

Over the past three years I've really embraced the idea of "taking off my mask" at CR. 

However, I still struggle with doing that in other areas of my life, mainly work and Sunday morning church.  That is until now.  Earlier this month Nate and I shared our couples testimony with our Bible Class... I'm not talking about a handful of other people, but a good 60-80 couples.  Talk about scary!!

I've known for a long time that God wants us to use our recovery journey to help other couples.  However, finding the right outlet for that hasn't necessarily been easy. Nate has had numerous opportunities to speak at different churches about his struggles.  I always tag along and afterward get numerous questions and comments from the "audience." I had wanted an outlet for myself, a way to share our story, how our marriage has been impacted.

I have prayed about those opportunities and recently felt compelled that we should offer to share with our class. So, we went to the elders of our class and our class chairman and offered to share. They took us up on the idea.

Then there we were, on a Sunday morning, "taking off our mask" in a BIG way. I have to admit the day before and morning of I had a lot of fear. I really struggle with wanting other people's approval and while I know people at CR accept me I wasn't so sure of what the aftermath of this would look like. So up we went-- for the next 30 minutes we spilled our lives in front of them.

Were they shocked, I don't know I could barely look at them partly from nerves and partly from the tears clogging my eyes every few paragraphs. When it was all over several of them came up and thanked us, hugged us and just gave us an overall feeling of support. Then in the days to follow I got numerous messages from people thanking us for our transparency.

I have to admit, we aren't the first in our class to share. We've actually had a few couples sharing their struggles with the class. However, we wanted to do this to share the hope and healing we've found in Christ, through Celebrate Recovery. We wanted people to see that marriages do struggle sometimes, but that by allowing God in healing can take place. 

I see this opportunity as an answer to prayer. I truly believe that God wants us to share our hope and healing with others. Will there be future opportunities? I don't know. Will I take them if there are? You betcha! Sure, I'll still be shaking like crazy when I stand up there, but I also know that God will be there with us sharing HIS story of hope and healing.

Looking back, I'm grateful for the opportunity and glad that I no longer feel like I'm hiding parts of my life from my church family. Now, just to work on that at work... 

Grateful Believer,
Chellie