Have you ever jumped on Facebook and felt like everyone was on vacation but you?
Ever scrolled through your news feed and felt like you were the worst mom of the year because you aren’t soaking in the early morning rays of sunshine with your 2-year-old in the park like every other mom is?
Have you ever felt like a failure because your coworker has finished 4.25 miles of his morning trail run all before you got up and wiped the sleep from your eyes?
Have you ever felt like everyone else’s kitchen comes straight out of a Martha Stewart magazine while yours looks a bit more like a kitchen found in a frat house?
What about your kids… ever feel like they are NEVER as well-behaved or athletic, or as honor rolled, or as perfect and put together as all those other kids that pop up on your Facebook wall?
Have you ever felt bad about your life after looking at everyone else’s?
You aren’t alone.
The truth is, none of us are really as good as our Facebook wall and profile let on. That is probably the one area of our life that is totally within our control… (except for those random high school photos that I keep getting tagged in. Oh Marching Band… Glad we spent 4 years together…) But let’s be honest, we only post the things that show off our good sides. We are able to upload a picture, write a cute caption, publicly praise our spouses, and flaunt our victories to make us look amazing.
You know… There’s that awkward post of, “Hey babe, can’t wait for you to get home tonight… wink wink.” Right, we get it… you guys have a ‘healthy marriage’. Or, “Check out my kid… I love the way his mind works…” Yeah, your kid is super special. Or, “My hubby just did all the dishes, and cleaned the whole kitchen. He’s the best.” Right. Why aren’t we seeing that post every night?
Come on people. We live in the real world. The problem is that many of us are working overtime cultivating our digital worlds at the expense of those who are around us each and everyday. We don’t live in the world of 1′s and 0′s. This is not the matrix. If we buy the Facebook lie we run the risk of anesthetizing ourselves to our own life and we face the possibility of drowning in our own jealousy and frustration.
Stop buying the lie.
Next time you see that beautiful family photo, know that there were hundreds of others that didn’t make the cut. Know that the precious outfit that little kid is wearing got jelly all over it minutes after that was Instagramed. What you didn’t read about the guy doing the dishes and cleaning the kitchen, was that the only reason he was doing it was because they just got in a huge fight the day before.
Recently, my wife came home from her women’s Life Group, and a couple of the mom’s have decided to make May the month of digital reality. They have decided to post real life pictures in order to ditch the pressure to be like every other ‘perfect’ person out there who has it ‘perfectly together’. It all clicked with me when I saw Tiffany’s Instagram the other day.
I loved it. Because this is my life.

She is equal parts crazy and equal parts cute. But that is life. And I wouldn’t change it for the world.

What do you love about your life? Let’s hear it.
~Peter