We spent an incredibly fun time at Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo, enjoying the always-delightful sensation of meeting online friends, face-to-face, for the first time. We went with the intent of painting scripture references on the cars, and that’s exactly what we did!

After we had them all painted, and took a zillion pictures, one of our friends’ daughters who had joined us to paint, handed me what looked like a colorful stone. I quickly realized I was wrong, when she told me that it was layers of paint from one of the cars. I’ve been thinking and thinking about it, since, those years upon decades of different layers of color, all representing whatever truth the painter decided to share.

While we’ve been out on the road, Mary has been speaking to women about friendships. One of the points she makes is that, if we’re not careful and we give our friendship an unbalanced position in our lives, there will come a point in which we receive that friend’s perceptions of us as truth. We might take that truth and build on it, making ourselves into someone we are not, but someone whom we think that friend will like. We start adding layers of untruths to ourselves that are not representative of who we really are.

I’ve done this. I’ve made myself into someone I thought would better fit with who I thought my friends wanted me to be. It’s been my experience, however, that when you do this, you start to lose touch with who you really are, and who you were created to be. Not too different, actually, from a beautiful big-fin, classic Cadillac that is now covered in so many layers of paint that the original shape is obscured and the fine craftsmanship is beyond recognition.

This all makes me think of the classic cars my dad loves. He follows the circuit of people who invest their time and money into preserving the integrity of the original car. They work hard at maintaining the special features that make the car unique, and set it apart from every other. They value the way the designer created the vehicle.

As I look at this little chunk of paint layers, I’m reminded that everyone in my world – myself included – is better served if, instead of continuing to add layers of lies and alter-egos, I peel back the ones that are there and start valuing the original design.

And, I bet I will enjoy better relationships in the bargain.

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Join us on the road as we travel the Great Girlfriend Adventure!