Day 4- Comparison

Yikes, I'm trying here. So yesterday I intended to blog after the kids got in bed but I was EXHAUSTED and had a terrible sinus headache so yeah, it didn't happen. And while it makes me cringe, I'm telling myself it is ok. GRACE!

So yeah, I started back to M.O.M.S (Making Our Mothering Significant)yesterday, and it was wonderful and so needed. Just to hear several Godly women speak and to sing some worship songs did my heart good. I had some anxiety about going, just because of Hadley's history of staying with anyone but me. :) Usually it is a lot of screaming but I prayed and prayed that she would stay and feel safe and secure and she did it! I was so proud of her!

One of the things that just really stuck out to me yesterday at MOMS that I have always struggled with and still do is comparison. The speaker described it as looking over other people's fences. I am always comparing myself to women I see as amazing moms, amazing wives, people who have kids who are always well behaved, people who just seem to have it all together, and the list could go on and on. I have always been hard on myself and all of this comparing only makes things worse.

I have seen the quote: "Comparison is the thief of joy" over and over on blogs, Facebook and Instagram here lately, and it is like God is knocking me upside the head with it. But, how true is that?! When we compare we become blind to the things we do have. We all struggle in some way or another, some more and some less, but when we compare ourselves or even our possessions it takes away from what we DO have. I will admit I have been having a hard time in finding joy in my life lately. I have been feeling overwhelmed and tired and just "not with it". I have a wonderful husband and wonderful kids and yet there are days when I miss the joy in them. The sad truth is that I spend so much time comparing that sometimes I miss IT.

Facebook and Instagram are wonderful things, and I love them (probably too much!) but I think a big reason and cause of all this comparison is social media. People post pictures of their cute kids, and families, and they write statuses about wonderful family outings and how their husbands do all these wonderful and romantic things for them. These are great, I mean I absolutely do this too and there is nothing wrong with it, but it paints a "false" picture. I think it just plays on our insecurities. I start thinking about how much better so and so has it, how cute and stylish they are or how lucky they are to have this or that. Ugly, ugly, ugly!

I saw a quote from the preacher of Elevation Church in Charlotte Steve Furtick where he said “One of the reasons we struggle with insecurity is because we are comparing our behind-the-scenes with others highlight reels.” Isn't this so true! Nobody is going to post about all the fights they have with their husband, or a video of them losing their patience with their kids and yelling at them. We just don't do that, and we shouldn't! But, we also shouldn't be comparing ourselves with all of our Facebook friends' statuses either. I'm working on this and I am a slow work in progress, but a work nonetheless. :)

So here I go with my really cute picture of my "perfect" family. :)

And here is one I didn't post. Two kids crying and one mad as a hornet. :)

Day 2 "It doesn't have to be perfect to be beautiful"

So here I am "doing it" and can I say only 2 days into this and I feel myself just wanting to retreat and say never mind. I have been reading other friends' posts and then of course the blogs I usually read as well and to be completely honest I just feel inadequate. I went back to The Nester to find some blogs to look at and I noticed for the first time her tag line: "it doesn't have to be perfect to be beautiful". So true and I so believe that for everybody else, it is just tough for me to allow that for myself.

My whole purpose in doing this is just to "revive" my blog, not to necessarily delve into anything terribly deep or serious, and I need to just let myself be ok with that. This was a very last minute, (read last night around 10:00pm) that I decided to do this whole thing. There was/is no plan and that is where this is a challenge for me.

Pinterest snag, but you can get a free printable of this HERE. Think I just might get this printed and post it somewhere in my house. :)

31 Days of "Just Doing It"

So I have been a terrible blogger but have continued to read blogs and everybody seems to be doing The Nester's 31 Days so I figured what better time to jump back into blogging. In a weird way I kind of hope nobody reads this, I feel inadequate and so 2011 in this big blog world, but I honestly just want this space to be a journal for me and my family and really want to jump back in. I've read so many things about the mom being the memory keeper of the family and am sad to say I have been failing miserably at being the memory keeper. I'm hoping if I can stick with this 31 days it will be a jump start to me keeping up with my blog.

So why 31 days of "just doing it"? I have a terrible problem where I'm a bit of a perfectionist and I want to do things a certain way, and if I can't do something to the exact way that I think it should be then I would rather just not do it. I'm a black and white, all or nothing person. This is in all areas of my life including blogging, which is why I haven't kept up with it. I don't want to live this way anymore and really want to give myself enough grace to realize it doesn't have to be all or nothing. That God doesn't expect perfection from me and neither should I.

I'm hoping this 31 days is a spring board of change for myself to realize that I just need to do and be the best I can, and that doesn't mean being perfect at everything I do. During this 31 days I hope to revive/update my blog and to explore things that I haven't done because I'm "scared" of it not being 100%.