The Committee

This month I have been a student of authenticity.  I've been seeking information and knowledge because 1) I wanted to write 31 posts and 2) I wanted to figure out a bit more about authenticity.

Truth can be found in a variety of surprising places.  I read an article by Martha Beck who is not a person I would likely ever align my life with, but...she had some good things to say.

(This is from the November O Magazine):

Maybe you're one of those self-assured people who've never given a hoot what anyone thinks of them. If so, you also probably set fires and hurt small animals, because you are a psychopath.

So, she's right.  We care what people think about us.  It would be a little scary if we didn't.  It helps keep us being kind and decent to each other.

She also explained in the article that we all have an Everybody Committee.   We think "everybody thinks I'm _______, everybody wants me to __________,"  etc.  Really, when we think that, we are thinking of a few people we know--a committee--that are sort of judgmental. 

Your vague, unconscious guesstimate of your Everybody Committee's opinions affects your every move. When you hate on your hair or dread speaking in public, you're anticipating your committee's judgment. If you wouldn't be caught dead without your Rolex and false eyelashes, it's because that's what your committee approves. If you consider yourself a rebellious nonconformist, you continually refer to your committee so you can be sure to shock them. (Can you say "irony"?)

So what do you do?  Get rid of your Everybody Committee.  Send them on their merry way and install a new committee.

Here's where your authenticity comes in.  Because your Everybody Committee, the real and good one, will probably look different than anyone else's. 

When I summon my Everybody Committee, it includes people that I know really and truly love me.  They are people that know me, the Real me, and love me anyway.  On my committee are people I don't want to disappoint.  A while ago, when I wrote about imagining a person next to you, I hadn't read this article yet but that's the same idea.  My wonderful SIL Jennifer (who is on my new and improved Everybody Committee by the way) commented on that post:

...I liked what you wrote about picturing the person you admire being with you all day. That thought intrigues me. It also made me hum the Primary song "If the Savior Stood Beside Me." :) 

Imagine a world if we all had Jesus Christ on our Everybody Committee.  Front and center.  What if we lived our lives with Him in mind?

Here are the words to the song Jennifer was referencing, written by Sally DeFord:

If the Savior stood beside me,
would I do the things I do?
Would I think of His commandments,
and try harder to be true?
Would I follow His example?
Would I live more righteously
if I could see the Savior standing nigh,
watching over me?

 If the Savior stood beside me,
would I say the things I say?
Would my words be true and kind
if He was never far away?
Would I try to share the gospel?
Would I speak more reverently
if I could see the Savior standing nigh,
watching over me?

 He is always near me,
though I do not see Him there,
And because He loves me dearly,
I am in His watchful care.
So I’ll be the kind of person
that I know I’d like to be
if I could see the Savior standing nigh,
watching over me. 

See?  Now you love Jennifer just as much as I do.  How can you not adore a person who has that song is in her mind?