Revised Repost: "The Ugly Truth"

I watched the tv version of "The Ugly Truth" this weekend and then went back and looked through some of my beginning posts and thought this one is worth reading again... Today is exactly what Monday gets accused of being... Terrible! haha! So here's a little something that helped me and I hope helps you as well:

Is the truth always ugly? Seriously, I cannot count the times I've had someone tell me the truth about any given situation and, to be frank, I hated to hear it! So is it true, is truth always ugly? Although I wouldn't necessarily recommend the movie "The Ugly Truth," I may be inclined to believe a lot of the instruction it gives on relationships to be true... In the end (this will spoil the movie for you so don't finish reading this post if you are not willing to know the end before the... well, end :o)) the instructor, so to speak, fell in love with the woman he was helping with relationships and they ended up together.. It's always nice to see that but sometimes I feel like I have been feeding my mind with all the great love stories in Disney books and movies, romance novels (although I have only read about 2 myself, I am not unaware of the break down of most widely read novels), who can forget "Gone with the Wind" or "Pride and Prejudice" but maybe the truth is just ugly like it was in my parents divorce. "Becoming Jane" (Jane Austin's actual life story which ended nothing like her hopelessly perfect literary endings), "Romeo and Juliet" or "Wuthering Heights" and even the crucifixion is an ugly truth of a savior dying in agony and shame... And if truth is ugly then what is there to hold onto?

Hereafter I state the case of something to hold on to: True stories like one I heard on Oprah years ago... A German man and woman who fell in love just before the Nazi's invaded their little town... They would ride their bicycles together, or go for long walks talking about their future; never anything extravagant but apparently filled with love. While under Nazi control they, of course, were separated and sent to different concentration camps. When the invasion came to an end they franticly searched for each other but to no avail... Eventually they each accepted the death of the other, both married and moved on, had families and lived their separate lives holding only the memory in their heart. Somehow, years later, they found out each other were still living. Their respective spouses had passed away and they decided to meet, got married shortly after and lived the rest of their days making up for time lost. Stories of people like Jack and Kathy (the Assistant Pastors at my church), when they met Kathy was uninterested to say the least but now, after years of falling in love daily, are so in love you can actually see it in their eyes every time the other enters a room. Lastly, the "ugly" crucifixion is where the beauty of salvation, miracles and true love really comes from.
So maybe the truth is always ugly, at least in the beginning... Maybe we need the ugly moments to be able to recognize beauty at all... If everything was always great wouldn't it all just become average and dull? Maybe your day (like mine) is pretty much written off or sadness has crept into your mind when you weren't quite prepared... Maybe today is not a day you would like to remember, but when when you step outside, today or tonight look up at the sky... See the beautiful Sun and feel it's warmth on your face, take in the view of the stars so many people rarely take the time to notice and realize they were put there by a God who loves you, to sooth you and remind you you're not alone.

Maybe it's only emotion and not quite as positive as we should be about life in general but maybe that's exactly what is needed somedays...  When life has been coasting right along and it starts feeling average when we really should be feeling blessed for everything that has happened. Maybe us singles are not always confident with regards to our status; there are days when I (and most people I think have these days) don't even feel pretty let alone beautiful... But maybe that's all so we will appreciate our future spouse enough to be supportive, work on our marriages and make sure our respective spouses always know they are respected and loved... Maybe it's just an answer to prayer that we will be able to recognize true love when it comes our way...

"It's always darkest just before the dawn", there is nothing quite like the beauty of a new day and maybe that's because we compare it to the emptiness of the dark night before. So... I'm excited, even though it sometimes seems ugly; the truth is exactly what I want... True love, true relationship with God, true joy and true appreciation for all the wonderful things in life... The ugly truth is, some days are hard, a lot of relationships do not work out, and yes Jesus was crucified but that all means we can know when we have a great day, one relationship just around the corner will work out (and that will be the only one you or I will need to work out) and every one of my sins and your's can be forgiven when we repent, change our ways and ask forgiveness, we are healed in every way, we are made whole because Jesus was crucified and rose again! And that is "The Ugly Truth."