The book cover is almost completed.  The writing is done. We are just a few weeks away from the book being finalized. I can’t believe it’s already here. This book started as a dream a couple of years ago and then the formal writing started. Many of you have read these blogs for so long and I just wanted to thank each one of you.  I can’t wait for you to read my book, as well.  This book has been a journey; a journey of my life.

There are times I struggled with transparency while growing up and thought it was because I was a pastor’s daughter. Now that I’m on the other side and simply a layperson in the church, I realize transparency is a struggle for all people; both those in the church and those not in the church.  We must work daily at transparency if we desire to be true and authentic because transparency isn’t always easy.

I have been writing in my journal since I was a teen and have been quite transparent in my writings there. This blog has been part of my transparency journey with you. As I felt led to write my book, I decided to try out the blog first to see how the writing would go.  I mean, really, it’s one thing to write about being transparent and it’s another thing to live it out in my writings in front of others.  So, writing blogs has been my way of living out what I’m asking people to do in my book.  It’s definitely not been easy. There were many days I didn’t want to write about my life or circumstances, but in my pursuit of transparency it was a must for me.

I hope throughout this week you can choose to be transparent with someone in your life. We can’t always understand where people are on their transparency journey, so we must start with ourselves. We must choose to love ourselves, as God loves us, and then let the road to transparency begin! Happy journeys!

© 2013 Susan M. Sims

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