See Yourself

I recently read the following quote by Teresa of Avila:

Be happy when you are blamed and accused wrongly, for then you have the chance to see all the bitter, hostile or self-pitying responses that your sinful soul wants to spew out – as if these puny things could in any way defend you! Watch and see if any of these poisons come out of you when your spirit is pricked by an accusation. Only then can you see yourself as you are, and confess thy sin that is within you and forsake yourself again into the Lord’s care.

That’s so true isn’t it, we can often “put on a front” and act one way 90% of the time, but when things don’t go our way or go against us wrongly, our true self comes to the fore!

Maybe we shouldn’t “put on a front” at all, as otherwise we are in danger of never really getting to know our true selves, although maybe letting our alter-ego out too often might be too scary for everyone too! 😉

All joking aside though, I do think it’s important to understand what presses our buttons and brings out the worst in us, because otherwise we will never be able to do something about our bad points and become more of the person God wants us to be.

So while it’s good to “put on a front” at times, it’s also good to let the other side of our true self out sometimes, so we know exactly the person we are during adversity as will as during good times. So identify your areas for improvement and ask God to help you become the person you are capable to be.