Are we only SKIN DEEP?

 Yesterday Tina posted "Stuck in your circumstances" by Beth Moore on the Facebook page ....that was so good!!
Beth said to PRAISE...make your mouth do it whether you feel like it or not....I thought WOW!! ...your heart has to go where you mouth tells it ...PROFOUND isn't it!!? The Bible tells us out of the mouth the heart speaks...and yet we can AFFECT our hearts with our mouth...it is not those things that go in that defile you it is what comes out....SPEAK LIFE and get moving...get unstuck!!!
STUCK!!! That has been a big word around here at F of L. Like God is just opening our eyes to the ways that we are stuck.
Stuck in negativity...
Stuck in habituality...
Stuck in anger...
Stuck in silence....
STUCK!!!!!!!!!!
You been there?
 We can UNSTUCK ourselves using our MOUTHS and ACT!!!  Start talking ...the truth to yourself and to others.
 The other night I was pondering some things I have been reading and a thought went through my head :
 Are you willing to go another skin layer deeper??
 Ever been around someone who is thin skinned....easily offended...
 Ever skinned your knee or shaved off a layer of skin in the shower.....it HURTS, its not COMFORTABLE, and it is sometimes a SCARY thing!
You know that you have gotten to a place where taking it a layer deeper has come in a relationship when PAIN, UNCOMFORTABLE, AND FEAR become factors. You will either stay STUCK and never move into a more intimate place or you will RISK it and take the skinning.
I have one particular relationship where I want something deeper. I come up against that SKIN LAYER (its when you fear to speak the truth, your afraid to be yourself ) That is when you have gone as deep as you can go with someone unless YOU RISK IT! (fear of rejection: what if they don't hear me, what if they don't care, what if.....)
Christ was whipped, had his flesh torn off, was beaten and crucified for us to have a DEEP and REAL MEANINGFUL RELATIONSHIP with GOD!
and we wont even risk a scrapped knee to get into a deeper place with people.....
or what we do is instead of taking the scrap on our skin we pull out the shaver and scalp them in anger cause they are FINALLY gonna hear it...We are tired of being silent! am I right?? I know I have been here!!!
I know it is scary ...I am right there with you....I silence myself out of fear more than I care to admit....but I LONG FOR THE REAL....I LONG FOR THE MEANINGFUL...the open ...the honest....the intimacy....for the real me to be HERE and NOW. It is ME who chooses not to speak by giving into the fear and thinking that the consequences of being disagreed with or rejected is too hard to handle.
One step at a time is all GOD is asking for....one day at a time...one moment to moment...
I have made this vow to myself at least a hundred times : I am going to be real, I am going to be who I am, I am not hiding who God made me to be anymore. I will be honest at all times. 
 And I still fall off the bandwagon ....GET UP I tell myself. KEEP MOVING...TRY AGAIN!! ...and I get up again...today I am getting up AGAIN...I fell off again yesterday. I stayed silent when I should have spoken up. IT IS NOT EASY...what is easy is to quit ..and I REFUSE to quit!!
You don't quit either!! GET UP! PRAISE GOD and Keep MOVIN!!!
Tell that heart what you are GOING TO DO...be of good courage. STAND!
Let us not be ONLY SKIN DEEP!
F & L'er
Starla