I posted a picture on Instagram this afternoon:
Yes, I did pause before I hit “share”. Goodness, it’s hard to be vulnerable. But I quickly put my self-doubt aside and thought, “Someone might need to see this today.” And guess what? It seems like a LOT of people needed to see it today.
I got so many comments about how similar their view was, and how refreshing it is to see pictures that aren’t perfectly staged.
Here’s the cold hard truth: we cannot believe everything we see on social media. While I try to be honest about challenges I’m having, I typically don’t post about my (literal) dirty laundry most days. And that’s ok! I don’t think anyone would like to follow someone who posted pictures of their messes every day.
But this becomes a problem when we start to compare our lives to the highlights people are sharing on social media. When we’re sitting in the middle of our super messy kitchen, on day three of no showers, with our kids behaving less than perfectly…and then we take a peek at people’s immaculately styled pictures…it’s SO easy to feel resentment. It’s so easy to compare their perfect pictures with our very real and messy reality.
Please please PLEASE know that what you’re seeing on social media is in no way an accurate representation of everyday life.
Read that again.
And believe it.
Then next time you’re laying on the floor with a teething baby, or wiping up your potty training toddler’s accident, or when you can’t remember when you last wore “real clothes” instead of yoga pants…just try to embrace it. I know it’s hard some days. But I’ve learned that this a season of life, and it won’t always be this way. I am told we will miss the little handprints on our windows and the crumb trails left around the house.
So, embrace your reality, whatever it may be, and take social media with a grain of salt. Let social media be a place of inspiration, not comparison.
THANK YOU! I actually am taking the month off of Instagram because I just got too discouraged trying to keep up and compare on a daily basis. Trying a lot of prayer this month to stop comparison thinking.
I so love this – it’s something I need to remember, for sure. Thank you for sharing. 🙂
-Megan
http://www.lifeonshadylane.com
Love the “let social media be your place of inspiration”!
thanks, Whitney!! There is SO much inspiration out there, I have to also remind myself that it’s not real life!! But a great way to get inspired & meet new people 🙂
Christina:
I think we need to see this from time to time. I actually thought about blogging for quite some time but in the middle of “life” I always looked around and said “how could I possibly have a blog, most days there is only a small portion of my home that isn’t a disaster!” And then thanks to some very honest bloggers putting themselves out there and showing what things look like sometimes flipped the switch and I realized it doesn’t all have to be perfect all the time.
Thanks for sharing.
Chris
It’s absolutely NOT PERFECT almost all of the time! Ha! There may be a corner of the room ready for a picture, but the rest of the room isn’t quite as “picture perfect”. Blogging is a tough world sometimes – but my goal is to try to infuse a little bit of reality into my corner of the blog world this year 🙂 Thank you so much for taking the time to comment, Chris!
I am reading this one year on in Australia and feel grateful for this post. I’m wanting to upgrade our already nice home but want it to look a little different from when we built it 7 years ago. Christmas now over and funds a little bit tight at the moment, I felt like it wouldn’t happen soon. But nnow I am not worried about it. Thanks again