My life is not picture perfect. I’m guessing yours isn’t either. However, social media sites like Facebook and Pinterest can give the impression that EVERYBODY else’s life is picture perfect, while mine or yours is kinda messy.
I wonder sometimes, how many people spend their lives pursuing a commercialized or social media driven perception of happiness? All the while, taking their potentially fulfilling real lives for granted.
I’ve used Facebook for a few years and I have watched everyday snapshots become more and more professional looking and commercialized. It makes me wonder if we are subconsciously (or consciously) using social media to “market” a certain perception of ourselves rather than to share our reality?
If you could see a snapshot of my life at this very moment, you would see me sitting on the couch in a sweatshirt with no make-up. The mess from lunch is still all over the kitchen. There are toys everywhere. Asha’s crazy curly hair is starting to dread because I haven’t washed it for a few days and she has snot on her face because I can’t keep her from wiping it straight up into her hair. Yuck! I probably won’t post our picture on Facebook today!
We post the highlights and occasionally the rants but not the “ugly” stuff. Nobody puts “I forgot to pay my credit card last month and Citibank called me 75 times today and keeps calling even after I paid it” on their status.
Yep, that happened to me! Why didn’t I post it? Because it’s kind of embarrassing ..what will people think of me? They might think I’m so disorganized, I can’t even pay my bills on time. They would be a little bit right and I would rather hide that fact.
So, instead I/we post things like… “My husband is so awesome, he did such and such” OR “My kid got 120% on everything and reads 200 books everyday…” it becomes easy to believe that everyone is perfect and happy when we only see their highlights and when they only see ours. Then we compare our reality to other people’s highlights and we feel like a huge mess.
I do that all the time.
Perhaps I am the only one? Probably not!
The truth is- Nobody’s life is perfect. We all have strengths and weaknesses. We post our strengths on Facebook and feel bad when someone else’s strength reminds us of our weakness.
The last few years, Jaison and I have been kind of just holding on. Desperately trying not to fall into the grips of rejection, grief, anxiety and depression. It’s much better now and there is starting to be “room” for more in our lives. However, for a long season we just did what was necessary to stay afloat. We kept it simple. No elaborate projects or traditions. Just the basics.
Soooooooo, no fancy pictures of our house, yard, baby nursery, Christmas traditions, vacations, etc…
I’ll admit, I often have felt bad when I have seen other people’s pictures of their projects and traditions. I have felt like I was somehow cheating my kids because they don’t have chandeliers and murals in their rooms or mischievous elves stalking them.
Here’s the truth- IT DOESN’T MATTER!
We made it through a horrible season of life while maintaining a simple but happy life for our children and a growing marriage. Our kids are happy, we have made some great memories and we have learned some awesome lessons.
There is no way to take a picture of that.
If there was, it probably wouldn’t be pretty. It would be all messy, blurry, totally unprofessional and I would love it. I would love it even more than a professional picture that made me look really skinny! I would love it because it’s my REAL life. Someone else might look at it and think “ugh, what a terrible picture” but I will always know the beauty of it.
What would your real life picture look like?
A Genuine Journey 