A taste of parenting?

Tonight, I was hurt by someone who I had attempted to build a relationship of trust and honesty with.  They used me.  They used our relationship as a cover-up for their sin.  They tracked my name and the name of our ministry through the mud, potentially.  And, I am heartbroken.  I just want to know, "why would you do this after all we have worked for?"  I want to shout that, but, I don't think shouting will help.

Is this what it's like when you pour yourself into someone and they turn around and make the sinful choice anyway?  It feels like I was betrayed by my inner circle.  Yikes, for a second I almost make a comparison to Jesus and Judas.  This has nothing on that.  But, it still feels like all the progress we had made just went out the door.

A lesson in all this is, "Honesty at all times".  Which is a struggle for me.  I'm a recovering liar.  I'm feeling first hand what I made my parents feel like every time I threw them under the bus.

Colossians 3:9-11

⁹Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices ¹⁰and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. ¹¹Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.

I think lying does so much damage.  I can see from my own past as an avid liar the pain it can cause and the tremendous loss of time.  Most horrible is the loss of trust.  I think the devil became the father of lies because he knew that lies were easy.  He couldn't because the father of remarkable evidence, so he went with the next best thing.  If we lie to one another and break that trust, then how can we feel loved by our faith community?  


God, let this be a lesson to me.  Help me to foster a climate of honesty and transparency.  Make my world a place where loving correction is never replaced with judgement.  Most importantly, help me to keep your image in my mind.  Christ be my all and take all of me.