Karen wrote to me: “The other day on Facebook I posted this: ‘I locked my keys in the car at work, and by the time I got back to the car, finding help was difficult.
"I hadn’t left a key with people who could have brought me one, and I hadn’t hidden a key anywhere on the outside of the car. So I had to call a locksmith, which was expensive.
"Recently a similar inconvenience occurred when I had a flat tire and discovered that I had no flashlight, no flares, and no air in my spare tire. How many times have I experienced the price of my not being responsible and preparing for such events?’”
“Here’s the odd part,” she continued to me. “Quite a few people made comments to my post, mostly saying things like, ‘Don’t be so hard on yourself.’
Or, ‘It sounds like you have a habit of harshly judging yourself, and that might not be good for you.’ But I didn’t feel like I was bashing myself, just telling the truth about how behaving irresponsibly creates unhappy situations. And I’ve done my fair share of that in life.”
Karen revealed a deep truth. When we tell the truth about ourselves—our fears, our lack of responsibility, our lies, our victimhood, and more—the people around us often recognize some of these characteristics in themselves. And they don’t want to face them—which would require inevitably difficult change—so instead they simply encourage us to quit describing these undesirable traits.
In short, people who want to continue living with their long-held lies are not comfortable in any environment where the truth is being told. Do not succumb to the pressure of people who hate the truth. Keep telling the truth about yourself, because that’s what creates opportunities for love and growth.
