Hello everyone!
We see many beautiful, smiling faces on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram don't we? We see beautiful smiling faces in people's homes. Everything in those pictures seem perfect doesn't it? Everyone seems so happy and peaceful, so pristine, so calm and collected right? Yet how many beautiful pictures do we see and all is not well? We see a front, a facade. We see two people or more attempting to hide behind their smiles and not face their pain and the ugliness going on in their relationships. I read a news story not long ago about a couple. The man killed his wife and children and I can bet you there was domestic violence in that home long before that happened. Yes what did the media show us from the last few years? Beautiful smiling pictures of a family hiding a terrible secret. No one in their lives bothered to look deeper as far as we know. How many of us have never thought to look deeper than the surface smiles we see in those pictures?
I can speak to this because I was one of those people, smiling for the camera and faking it, faking it really well. I hid behind my smile, my church attendance and my faith and refused to face something ugly in my marriage for a long time. My late husband did the same, he would have it no other way. Just so people know, you can have faith, love God and have serious issues you need to deal with. You have two choices. You can deal with the issues or you can hide behind your smiling pictures and the issues will never get better. What is not brought out into the light and given to God never gets better. No amount of smiling, Facebook, Twitter or Instagram posts, church attendance or faith can protect you from needing to deal with issues in your relationships. I'm here to tell you, those issues will spill over into everything but you will still have smiling, fake pictures all over social media or your living room wall to try and fool people. I did. People never knew what was really happening. Here's the problem, people can't help you if they don't know what is really happening.
I don't say all this to make anyone feel guilty who has done these things. We do what we can at times and what we know. What I am saying is if this is you, be real with those who care about you. If there is something seriously wrong in a relationship, stop smiling about it and deal with it. If you are in a domestic violence situation or any kind of abusive situation in particular, smiling about and tolerating that evil will only get you killed like it did that mother and her children I mentioned earlier. You can stop that pattern in your life by facing your facades.
Don't get me wrong, I love to see genuinely happy people. I love to see genuinely loving families and couples. However, I also encourage us to look deeper, especially if we know that something does not seem right. I look deeper all the time, usually I have not been too far from the mark. Looking deeper helps us know how to help people in trouble as well as how to stay away from evil. I ask you, look deeper! The pictures are never as perfect as they seem. One or both of those people may be in desperate need of help. Look deeper!
I have learned nothing is ever what it seems. There are many things that look pretty on the surface but underneath there is only evil and death. People say many things, many things they don't mean or things to appease you. Look deeper!! Listen for what is not being said or can't be said! If you look and listen, you will see and hear. You may just save someone's life in the process! You may save more than one life!
I close today imploring you to look deeper once again. It may not be comfortable or popular but it will show you the truth about what you see. I implore those of you who are "smiling through everything" to take some time to get real with yourself and others. Your facade's won't work, mine didn't. You owe it to yourself and your family to heal. In seeking truth there is great freedom! Look deeper and seek truth!
A Seeker of Truth,
Elizabeth