EPH 4:22 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. 25 Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body.

For most of us, we went into a survival mode when we were young and we made a vow in our hearts to stay in control of everything once we could, because we felt things were so out of control in our lives as kids. We learned at a very young age to manipulate in order to get our needs met which also taught us how to relate to people in very unhealthy and ingenuous ways. We basically became actors and actresses so that we could manage our young lives as best as we could, and protect and provide for ourselves when we felt that those who were supposed to would not. We learned to play roles because of fear in order to meet our needs.

As we recover, God will retrain us to start relating to people in a more healthy and genuine way, and He will help us to go from seeing people as a resource to manipulate and exploit in order to get what we want, into people that learn to love and value others properly and treat them right. God will teach you to express your emotions more honestly (both good and bad) and to not fear losing survival resources if we show our true selves. I just want to encourage you today to allow God to begin changing you in this way so that you can become the true person that you were created to be, and no longer a fearful survivalist. Become the real you.

PR 13:5 The righteous hate what is false, but the wicked bring shame and disgrace.