Creative Writing Prompt #15 Part 2: The Pain of The Mask.

Hey Everyone!
L. Here I wrote part two of my first CWP :D Sorry it took so long! If you haven't read Part 1, you can do that here.  Hope you enjoy it!

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Years went by and still my mask stayed on. As I worked hard to keep my mask up, my true face began to get worse. New pimples, bruises or scrapes popped up often, and the circles under my eyes got darker each morning. Whenever I dared to think of what was behind my mask it only made me work harder to keep it up. I didn't want people to see the bruises I wore from their careless remarks or "constructive" criticism or how deeply I had been wounded before. I didn't want them to see how red and puffy my eyes were from crying myself to sleep or that I wasn't even trying to fix these things.  Surely no one who saw that could love me or would even want to be around me.
Then I realized that someone did see my true face. God did. He knew every pimple, every scar, every line, and every bruise I had ever had and exactly how I got it. When I first realized this it terrified me! My mask had always made me feel safe and in control, but He knew... I felt so shameful, so broken, so... hopeless. Surely to please Him I would have to truly heal... but how could I do that from behind my mask.

My sister drew this.

I struggled with this for some time. To even try to fix my problems I would have to take off my mask and that would mean letting everyone know that I had been faking it for years and even if I did take the mask off I couldn't fix it myself. There were scars that might never heal and the bruises and pimples would take time and I had no idea how to stop the pattern of almost nightly crying which kept my eyelids so pink and swollen. Besides, who knew what it would do to my face to take it off?What if it tore my skin off with it?
That night I tried to pray. "God, I know you see my real face. You know I've been hiding. You know how messed up I am. But what can I do about it? I am so afraid and I don't even know if you can hear me. Do you listen to people like me?" I let out a heavy breath. I guess I should read the Bible, I thought, though not with much hope.

I opened my Bible somewhere near the middle and my eyes caught on these words:
"Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven,
whose sin is covered.
Blessed is the man against whom the LORD counts no iniquity,
and in whose spirit there is no deceit."
(Psalm 32:1-2 ESV)

Forgiven, covered, but no deceit?  How does that work?... "God?" I started to pray again.

To be continued...

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 Read the conclusion here
-L.