Day 49 Letting Go Part 3 Letting Go of our False Selves

Another major letting go needs to be the letting go of the false in order to embrace the true.

As a small child we believed everything we were told. We believed in Father Christmas. We believed that our parents or carers were infallible and could do no wrong.

However then one day a huge crack appeared in our foundations when we first learnt that what we thought was an undeniable truth was in fact false. We believed our parents could not lie to us and always told the truth. Then one day they tell a lie which cannot be denied. In that moment we discover a room called falsehood. Those we thought we could always trust have, in a moment, proved that this belief is an untruth. Suddenly, we are walking in a very different landscape where fear has walked in and now walks by our side.

Over the years we continue to trust as much as we can but find it more difficult to discern the truths from the lies. On the whole, we continue to trust what our elders tell us, including their thoughts and opinions about the meaning of life and how they view us.

Over the years we become a little like a jigsaw puzzle. Every day we get given two or three new pieces about who we are and who we are not. We try and fit those pieces into our puzzle but whilst some fit easily, others do not.

Some give us ‘nice’ pieces and others give us ‘not so nice’ pieces. If we begin with a puzzle that says we are of little or no worth, then we will take the pieces given to us that confirm this and place them. However, if we then get pieces telling us that we are of great worth, we will not be able to place them as these pieces contradict the pieces already laid in our puzzle. Therefore, we will tend to place one set of pieces,( we are of no worth) and discard the others (we are of great worth). For how can both pieces fit in the same puzzle? They can’t.

Yet later on we learn that in the same way as some of our elders brought untruths to our door, so too have many others. Then we must decide what to do.

We can continue with our first puzzle and only place the not nice pieces and discard the others. Or we must start again. This is a very scary place to be because it feels like our foundations are being dug up and surely the house we have built upon it will fall. And sometimes it does. But a house with poor, false foundations would be like building your house on sand. Eventually, when the sea and waves of time and circumstances come and crash against it, the house would fall.

We have instead to begin to build new foundations of who and what we are. We need to begin again, but this time only place pieces of truth in our puzzle.

And the first truth must be that we have been fearfully and wonderfully made in the image of a loving, benevolent, caring God. God is good. God is love. God is gracious. God is forgiving. If we are his children then we have these things running through our DNA too.

So, the first truths must be these and we must begin to believe that we are greatly and deeply loved and uniquely special and gifted. We learn that we are in fact of great worth. These foundations are like building our house on rock and when the winds and the rains come, they will not be able to knock us down.

So, you can choose to continue believing you are worthless and discarding the pieces telling you that you are of great worth. Or you can begin again, but this time only placing pieces that you know are true. That is the only way you can begin letting go of the false you and begin to embrace the true you.

What falsehoods have you been told about yourself and by who? How did that make you feel?

Are there positive messages about yourself which you discard because they contradict some of your foundations? If so, examine whether this foundation is true or false.

Can you accept that you have been wonderfully made and are full of love, kindness and care? If not, why. What holds you back from accepting this?