Masks

Tonight is Halloween and the streets outside my house are filled with kids in Halloween costumes. Despite the rain, they remain undaunted in their pursuit of candy. Halloween is like a huge costume party and some of those costumes are very impressive. It's good for kids to be imaginative, to pretend and to make believe. It's also a lot of fun to ask the kids what they are going to be for Halloween. They exude such excitement at pretending to be somebody special for a few hours. One of the secrets of a good costume is to wear a mask so that nobody can recognize your true identity beneath it.

There are, however, boys and girls who go through their childhood wearing "masks" of a different sort. These masks are not the Halloween, costume-party-kind, but masks of a psychological sort that "hide" a sadness, embarrassment, or trauma which they don't want other people to see or to know about.

Those masks can sometimes be very difficult to remove for fear that if people were to learn about the "true me" or my "true family", they wouldn't like me. And so, the kids hide behind masks of their own creation.

Ultimately, the energy that it takes to hide behind masks becomes too difficult and they hopefully begin to realize that only truthfulness can slowly peel off the mask and that the fears of one's true self or one's true family being revealed may not be as frightening as formerly thought.

The Kurn Hattin Homes for Children provides counseling and support for children who struggle with a variety of emotional issues. For some of them, it may be the first time they have talked to people about the story beneath the mask. Your donation to the children's home helps to heal these boys and girls who go through life, not just pretending to be somebody else, but just trying to survive. Won't you please make a donation today and help a child find joy? God bless you!