The Bite Size Podcast with Lorayne Michaels

Breaking Free from Perfection: Living an Authentic Path

• Lorayne • Season 2 • Episode 45

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Ever felt like you're living someone else's life, masking your true self behind a carefully curated persona? Join me, Lorayne Michaels, as I recount my journey from a structured career in medicine to the unpredictable realm of entrepreneurship, guided by faith and authenticity. Inspired by Priscilla Schreier's devotional "Awaken," we tackle the concept of "functional leprosy," where hidden struggles like anger, anxiety, or addiction are often masked by a facade of perfection. By reflecting on the story of Naaman, we explore how opening up to God and others can lead to genuine healing and deeper connections. 

Let's take a bold step into the world of vulnerability, acknowledging that it’s okay to not be okay but refusing to stay stuck. Whether you're wrestling with your own challenges or supporting someone else, action and honesty are crucial. Each of us is crafted with a divine purpose, and there are no mistakes in who we are. This conversation is an invitation to confront those areas where we might not be living truthfully and to strive for authenticity, encouraging listeners to share this journey with others who might benefit from its message.

Where you can find me:
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Email Me: LorayneMichaels22@gmail.com

Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Bite Size Podcast. I'm your host, lorraine Michaels, former EMT and nursing assistant, now business owner and wild entrepreneur. I walked away from over 15 years in medicine to pursue my passion and my God-given talents. Now I get the honor of helping other women discover their passions and purpose. If you're feeling stuck in life, unsure where to go or what to do, welcome. If you're exactly where you want to be great, you're welcome here too. If you have faced any kind of hardship or setback, you have found a safe place here. In other words, no matter who you are or what you've been through or what you're going through, this is the space for you. On the Bite Size Podcast, we'll discuss life, business and faith. There's something for everyone. So grab a cup of coffee and something to take notes with, because there will definitely be things you won't want to forget. Welcome back to the Bite Size Podcast. I'm your host, lorraine Michaels, and today is a solo episode I'm excited to bring to you.

Speaker 1:

I had been thinking what can I talk about? What is the Lord pressing upon my heart that I know I need to share? What can I talk about? And so what I do before I record always is to pray about. It is to journal, is to really get quiet before the Lord, so that I know that I am not speaking in the flesh, I'm not speaking from a place of. This is what I think I need to say. This is what I think y'all need to hear or want to hear, because, above all else, I want to make sure that I am doing the Lord's work, that I am not doing this in vain. I am not doing this other than Holy Spirit led. That is the most important thing. So this is what I do I journal, I pray and then I hop on and I talk and I interview and I bring value.

Speaker 1:

Today, today, I want to read to you my devotional. I want to read to you what I read and how the Lord spoke to me, because it's and it's by no surprise or it's not ironic it is exactly what I talk about, it's what I share, it's what I teach about, it's what I help coach people through, and it's authenticity. And so this is coming from my devotional. It is called Awaken, it's a 90 day devotional and it was written by Priscilla Schreier, and it was written by Priscilla Schreier, and so today's talking about functional leprosy. So I'm just going to read it and we're going to talk about it because it's pretty powerful.

Speaker 1:

Social media has made voyeurs of all of us. We carefully study and judge the lives of others, discovering things about them by stealth that we might never ask in person. But what we've mainly gathered from all of our snooping is the pressure for keeping up with errors. So when creating our own social persona, we cleverly conceal the reality of our private struggles, opting instead for an exaggerated, plastic version of the truth. We mask our hearts and weaknesses and deficiencies, promoting a carefully character that may technically resemble ourselves under carefully calculated lighting, yet it is vigilant to hide the flaws underneath. But perhaps modern technologies are not entirely to blame for those attempts to put a better face forward.

Speaker 1:

A bit of writing that dates back to the fifth chapter of 2 Kings, for example, opens up with a long list of accomplishments. Concerning Naaman, his high-level bio sketch contains elements of accolades, appreciation, achievements and admiration. He was a celebrated leader in the Syrian army. He accured the respect of his subordinates and earned favor with his king. A great man, a violent warrior, are all things you'd want included in your viewable profile, then. And yet peeking out from underneath the veneer of his success was the one little mention of something that couldn't stay hidden any longer.

Speaker 1:

Naaman was a leper, a career fighting man of brave and noble reputation. The last thing he wanted anyone to know about him was that he suffered from leprosy, the worst kind of ailment, one that found little compassion from others and certainly no possibility of cure. Leprosy was the kind of disease that could lie dormant for more than a decade before revealing itself in an obvious public way. Until then, the sick person could strategically cover proof of its existence with careful clothing choices and self-protective mannerisms. In this way, it was possible to live as a functional leper. We've now mastered the art of functional leprosy Sick and blemished and hurting on the inside, but all polished and buttoned up on the outside.

Speaker 1:

Perhaps anger boils in your heart. Perhaps anger boils in your heart. Perhaps a passionless, stale marriage exists within our home. Perhaps anxiety eats away at our peace of mind. Perhaps addiction robs us of freedom. Perhaps unforgiveness numbs our soul. Perhaps a lapse in integrity cloaks us with guilt. Yet we conceal these private pains from public knowledge with perfectly composed selfies. We're dying in plain sight, for surely the hidden leprosy will be the death of us, unless we let authenticity heal us first, if we lay ourselves bare before the Lord and be honest with ourselves, with trustworthy followers in the body of Christ, we can be restored to what's killing us. We can be restored from what's killing us. Today is the day for openness and vulnerability and trusting our real selves to the loving eyes of the Father Friend.

Speaker 1:

This was so impactful for me because and the journal prompt was to pray the Psalms prayer, david's prayer of search me, o Lord, and reveal to me my heart. And so I sat and I asked God to reveal to me where am I not living authentic? Where am I struggling? What am I hiding? And I have my own things that I still have to work on and work through daily. But I wanted to do this podcast about that and read that devotional, because how many of us are walking through life just carefully buttoned up and curated to pretend like everything's okay, but yet we're dying on the inside? How many of us are walking through life hating what we see in the mirror but pretending like everything is okay? But pretending like everything is okay?

Speaker 1:

I want to give you the freedom to be honest. I want to give you the freedom to be honest with yourself and to be honest with others. I want to give you the freedom of being able to reach out and say, hey, I'm struggling with this. Now, sometimes I know it's hard to come out and say that and sometimes I know you might not have the people around you to support you in that, to help you through that, and if that's the case for you, I invite you to reach out to me, whoever you are, wherever you are.

Speaker 1:

If you're hearing this and you don't have that person that you can call, that you can trust that is going to guide you in the right direction, because we all have those people where we confess our sins or we air our dirty laundry or whatever you wanna call it. We have those people in our life that we can tell these things to, but they don't help us. They just pass it off. Oh, you're just making a big deal about it. It's not a big deal when it is in fact a big deal. Or, oh, you know, we all mess up and they shrug it off and they don't call you higher With me.

Speaker 1:

I'm going to be the one that's going to walk with you through it, I'm going to be the one that's going to hold you accountable and I'm going to be the one that is going to call you up, and I'm going to be the one that is going to call you up. I'm not going to just call you out on your BS. I'm not going to make you feel bad about your decision, your choices or your struggle. I'm going to walk you through it and be there with you. But I'm also going to call you up because I know you're better than that and I'm not sitting here from a high place saying I'm better than you because I'm not. I have those people that I go to, that I tell my struggles, to, that I sit and pray with and talk this through and map out what can I do different? How can I be better?

Speaker 1:

So I loved this prompt today, this journal today. I loved it, and so I hope that, wherever you are at, you can be honest with yourself. And it's okay that we're not okay, but it's not okay to sit there. We're not okay, but it's not okay to sit there. It's okay if you're struggling, but it's not okay to ruminate in that and not do anything about it and not change. So if this is you, if this touched you, if you needed to hear it, there's no mistake that you are hearing it Because if you are hearing it, either A, you are struggling with it or, b, you know someone who is. So be that friend and help someone, or pass this short little note along and also reach out to me. You can find me, you can email me, lorainraine at theboldbeginningscom. It's L-O-R-A-Y-N-E at theboldbeginningscom and I would love to help you, however that may look. So, friend, thank you for listening and always remember you were divinely created for a divine purpose and there was no mistake in you.