Here is an article on TRANSPARENCY written by one of our scripture-based Biblical Christian Counselor students:
Loretta Henry
July 8, 2011
Session 92
Transparency
It never ceases to amaze me how much insight I get just by looking a word up in a standard dictionary. When I saw the following meaning for the word transparency, a bright light went off in my brain. It was an “aha! moment “ for sure!
Transparency: the quality of being transparent…
Transparent: having the property of transmitting rays of light through its substance so that bodies situated beyond or behind can be distinctly seen; admitting the passage of light through interstices.
I’ve known for quite a few years that transparency is supposed to be being honest about one’s life; about not hiding who I really am; about not being afraid to admit I was not perfect; about sharing my true self with others in order to help them and myself in the process.
However, the above definition pointed to, what I am thinking is, the whole point of transparency that I have been totally missing which is letting the light of Christ shine through me to others; letting the light of Christ light up any dark space that comes between me and another; letting the light of Christ project truth on the “o so small” nooks and crannies of my life that keep me from being the Christian witness that I am called to be. The whole purpose of transparency then is to bring honor and glory to God; to let Christ be seen.
This is why The Secret of Successful Christian Living is…TRANSPARENCY.
Therefore I cannot:
1. Have anything going on in my mind that I would not be willing
to share with the whole world. Philippians 4:8
Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.
The mind takes in a lot of territory. My mind is a vast universe of thoughts and ideas. It can lift me to heights of ecstasy or drown me in the depths of despair. It can be a full time job to monitor the thoughts that my mind decides to think when I am not looking. If I am not careful to have my mind submitted to Christ I can size up a situation or a person and become judge, jury and executioner without ever being fully aware of what I have just done. It is a very short excursion from the mind to the mouth and the most awful things can come off of my tongue if I have allowed thoughts contrary to Philippians 4:8 to develop. These thoughts can give birth to one of the ugliest words in the English language: gossip. Ironically, gossip comes from the word godsibb. It literally means god parent and refers to the female relatives and friends who gathered together to help a woman giving birth. I’m sure they would share a lot of news ( good and bad) with one another while waiting for the child to deliver; hence, the word gossip.
Gossip can be a cruel taskmaster. The flesh loves it! But when the deed is done, a Christian will find that it blocks the light of Christ and ultimately brings self-condemnation. When I gossip to a friend who is not a Christian my credibility for sharing the gospel is seriously damaged. If I want to be a transparent Christian this is one area where I dare not spend any time.
2. Have nothing in your home that you would not want the whole world to know about. Phil 2:3
The first thing I would think about would be any kind of lewd literature or pornography in any form; perhaps anything occultic. Others may think of beer or wine or cigarettes or maybe even marijuana. But I was also thinking of some other things that could be in my house that are a little more subtle. Think of Philippians 2:3.
Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more
important than yourselves ;
I know that I often have attitudes of selfishness in my home that I would never want anyone else to know about. I would never want anyone to see how I sometimes lose my temper with my husband or go shopping on the internet even though I know my husband really does not want me to spend that money. I can almost hear Paul saying, “These types of things ought not be my sister.” These are the things that prevent the light of Christ from getting through.
3. Keep yourself, your children, your home, property, closets, drawers, etc. as you would want the whole world to see – not in a spirit of false pride but in a spirit of thankfulness and appreciation for the blessings bestowed on you. Titus 2:3-5
Older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips nor enslaved to much wine,
teaching what is good, so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be dishonored.
I have seen first-hand how this works. I love to have everything in order but since I have the bad habit of procrastinating, I often take one too many breaks in front of the TV or spend too much time doing a puzzle or playing a computer game while procrastinating about the things that are important to the smooth running of “our” home. This was really a problem when I was a young mother. Instead of getting all the chores done first I would often waste precious time. These would be the days a friend would stop by unannounced or worse yet, my parents would “surprise” me by stopping by. I cringe at the memory of the unwelcome attitude I would have. I know my parents were very hurt by this and eventually they stopped coming altogether. I hated anyone seeing me in my less than perfect state.
I could have also been more transparent by sharing with them what I just shared with you. Perhaps they would have appreciated my honesty and it would have dispelled their feelings of being unloved or unappreciated. This third item is one directive for transparency that, had it been followed, would have dispelled a lot of the darkness that loomed in my family in the early days.
4. Do nothing you would be ashamed of Jesus seeing. Say nothing
you would not want Jesus to hear. Think of nothing you would
not want to share with Jesus. Matthew 5:22; Matthew 12:36
“But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court ; and whoever says to his brother, ‘You good-for-nothing,’ shall be guilty before the supreme court ; and whoever says, ‘You fool,’ shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell.”
“But I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment.
I remember a few years ago it was very popular to wear initial jewelry with the following letters: WWJD; what would Jesus do? For me it would have been good to have a bracelet that read, “WWJS”; what would Jesus say? I can get into a lot of trouble with my mouth; mostly by reacting. When I react to what other’s say, especially those in my home, in an unkind, angry, super-sensative way, I am certainly preventing the light of Christ from showing through. If I am being transparent it is not Jesus people are seeing but the me that is full of sin and darkness when left to my own devices. When I learned that I am going to be held accountable for every careless word I speak…I couldn’t believe it. “Every word, Lord? Not, every word!” But this is what the Word of God says…every word. Therefore, I have to be vigilant about “guarding my heart for out of it my mouth speaks.” Matthew 12:34
5. The very process of endeavoring to live your life to the honor
and glory of God will leave no time for discontent, self-pity,
or criticism of others. You will know you have achieved the
life of transparency when you develop a tolerance for the
shortcomings in others and begin to love others as yourself.
Most of the world is crying out for transparency.
Looking up transparency first took me to a lot of sites dealing with the business world. It seems the public is crying out for transparency in business and especially government. We want to know what is going on in Congress and the White House. We want to know what the UN thinks and the next plan the terrorists have. We want to know how our money is being managed.
Personal transparency is different. Many people seem to feel that there is too much personal transparency today and it is unhealthy to “tell all” to strangers. They believe there is a difference between transparency and honesty.
The internet consensus is that no one should lie; ever. However, complete transparency would be foolish. The only way one can have a life of complete transparency is to live a life where there is nothing to hide.
Tags: condemnation, credibility, Gossip, openness, Self-condemnation, transparency
