The key to really knowing yourself

Thomas Edison was concerned about the way visitors to his office helped themselves to his expensive Havana cigars. So since he refused to lock them up, his secretary suggested he have cigars made from cabbage leaves and substitute them for the premium cigars. Edison agreed, but then forgot about it.

He only remembered later when the Havanas started vanishing again. When he asked his secretary why the bogus cigars hadn't arrived, she told him they had arrived and had been given to his manager-who, not knowing they were fakes, had packed them for Edison to take on a trip.

"And do you know," Edison laughed, "I smoked every one of those cigars myself!"

It's amazing how people can very often deceive themselves when trying to deceive others. As Nathaniel Hawthorne said, "No man… can wear one face to himself, and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be true." When we don't live authentic lives before God and others, we can often forget who we really are.

But when you open up and allow others to see the real you, when you're honest with God about what you're struggling with, and when you begin to tear away the mask and live authentically, you'll discover what it means to really know yourself!