Are You Hiding?

“When you hide who you are, you are ultimately hiding from yourself. This is a haunting, exhausting kind of lost. And if evil can keep you distracted from taking the time to ask your soul where you really are, he can take you every day further from the life you envisioned.” 

I am currently reading Waymaker by Ann Voskamp. I just started it, but I had to go back and read these sentences probably 10 times because it hit so close to home. 

When I was drinking I was hiding. I was slowly but surely moving further and further away from who I truly was. I was compromising my values (family, faith, honesty), because I always chose a glass of wine first. I got to a point where I did not recognise myself anymore. I couldn't keep promises to myself ("I'll just have one tonight", “I'll only drink on the weekend this week”) and lived in an ongoing shame spiral. 

Are you hiding from yourself? I sure was. 
Do you feel like wine is moving you further and further from your values or what's important to you? That's what it did to me. 
Is it getting harder to remember those things that used to be important to you, because you haven't made them a priority in ages? (Date night, exercise, hanging with your kids, church). I chose drinking over all of it. 
Do you feel like on paper you have the life you envisioned, but on the inside you feel like you're no where near it? (I did.) 

Can I encourage you today?
You can find yourself again. 
You can reconnect with what's important. 
You can step into authenticity. 
You can trust yourself again.
All of it. 

All it takes is the first step in the direction of that woman you truly want to be. 

If I can do it you can do it.