Social media has truly flipped the world on its head. I can remember when I was in high school and it was cool to have a Myspace (👋🏾 Hi Tom!) or when you had to be a college student to have a Facebook page. Social media is a great tool to keep in touch with people and share what’s going on in your life. (Thank you, Jesus, that there wasn’t Facebook when I was in high school. It would’ve crushed me.) It can be so easy to look at others posts and think that some people have it all together. Myself included.
Last year, I wrote a post about how I dealt with some comparison and inferiority over someone on social media that I didn’t know. You can read that here. Then I got to thinking, what if the way I viewed that person as having it all together is the way someone is looking at me? (If you really know me, you know that is not true but hear me out.)
I’m not perfect. My house is not always clean. I don’t always make quality balanced healthy meals for my family. (My daughter often asked for chicken nuggets and fries well before she was two. 🙈) Sometimes I play on my phone when I should be paying attention to my kids or my husband. Sometimes I overspend. Sometimes I don’t see eye to eye with my husband. Sometimes I lose my temper and yell at my kids. I’ve been heartbroken. I’ve had a failed business. Sometimes I get overwhelmed (more often than I admit) and sometimes I cry.
Why do I say all this? Not to sound self-deprecating or for pity but because I don’t want someone to look at my Instagram/Facebook and think I have it all together. (Sometimes I do, like when I go to Target and only buy the things on my list.😆) But there are other times where the above happens. There are good things too that I’m more likely to put on blast. I’m in a loving decade-plus marriage with my husband, I have two happy and healthy kiddos. I have great friends. I’m a pretty private person when it comes to social media and I tend to keep the tough stuff to myself. I’ll be the first to admit that social media is my highlight reel and not a representation of my everyday life.
Several months back, I was tempted to post a picture on my Insta-story of my daughter throwing a fit. I didn’t because for one I don’t want other people to remember her that way. Although if you spent any time with my family in reality, you know that she has a healthy set of lungs and can be very opinionated. I also didn’t want to exploit her. Although I write about my children and share photos of them I do my best to protect their privacy and just let them be kids.
Back to my little laundry list of imperfections. I don’t write them to put myself down but I do want to be honest. I don’t want someone to look at me with envy or comparison. As of late, I’ve been taking a break from posting so much on IG and Facebook. Not that I don’t enjoy posting photos but I heard something on a podcast that really made me think. What reason are you posting photos? Is it to share what you’re doing or to get validation from others? I can be honest and say that sometimes for me it’s been the latter. I mean who doesn’t like, likes? 🤷🏾♀️
All that aside, my hope is to encourage someone in my writings and make someone smile as they scroll by my pictures. You don’t have to think I’m amazing. (And if you don’t I disagree with you.😏) I hope these blogs are taken for what they are. Just a woman, that has issues like everybody else, trying to share her heart.❤️