Have you ever walked in a cabinet shop or Lowe’s or even someone’s house that had kitchen cabinets with glass in the doors instead of wood?  Every time I see that, I think “How could anyone keep their shelves neat enough to make that look good?”  I’m not sure I’d ever want anyone to see what’s behind my cabinet doors, especially people I don’t know very well.  I mean, I have good intentions when setting up a kitchen or cleaning out my cabinets, to keep it that way, but it just never happens.  Over time, they get cluttered and things get out of place.  Quite often, I notice things in my cabinets that shouldn’t even be there and wonder how they got there and how long they have been there.  When I clean out my cabinets, I always throw away many items to get it looking like it should again.  Can you imagine how much better we would be at keeping our cabinets clean and neat if they had glass in the doors?   If they were transparent?

This reminds me of our lives.  Recently, it has been laid on my heart to live a “transparent life”, a life where what you see is what you get.  There are no surprises and nothing hiding behind a solid door.  Just like having glass in our cabinets, how much better we could keep our lives cleaned up if there was always a window to our soul and our hearts.  We would work harder at not only “cleaning out” our lives but keeping them clean.  It would be a great form of accountability.

We should strive to be a person that knows it only matters what God sees.  His opinion of us is the only one that matters.  I am not talking about it being important what other people think of us or living what looks like a “clean” life when it’s really not.  If others misjudge our actions and see things that aren’t there, that is not our fault.  I am talking about living a clean life with nothing to hide, the good and the bad, especially from our spouses and other close relationships.

Deep down, I WANT to be a good person with neat, clean shelves in my life.  If there is no way to hide anything, it makes it easier for me to keep my life clean.  When there’s room to hide, I may just start out by letting one small part of my life go.  This can slowly allow more and more clutter to creep in until my whole life is just a mess.  If we take the time to keep things clean in the beginning, it will help us keep our lives from being a big mess, as mine has been in the past.

My past is a dark place, full of lies and deceit and cluttered cabinets.  I have cleaned them out, with God’s help, and installed glass doors.  That’s not to say that there will never be messes, but they will be seen and I will do my best to be honest about them.  It will also help me pay more attention to keeping things cleaned up on a regular basis and not let things that shouldn’t be there sit stagnant and build.

When living transparently with others, just be who you are, despite your flaws.  Yes, you will be “judged” but in my opinion, it’s more important that we not live a lie.

Living Transparently – No secrets and nothing to hide – It’s what I aim for.

~Keeping it Real