Let’s Be Real

I saw a post on Instagram one day from a reality TV star who uploaded a picture of herself with her child. She had no makeup on, her hair wasn’t ‘done’ and she used no filter. That’s not what caught my eye. What caught my attention, was what she said. She said she almost didn’t upload the picture for fear of judgement, nasty comments or ridicule. What was a picture of a beautiful moment caught between herself and her child, had more meaning behind it than what we could see.

We’ve all done it. We take pictures, edit them or put filters that make those blemishes look a little less obvious, or make our skin look a little tanner or we crop out the mess in the background. And there’s nothing wrong with that. But there is a problem when we can’t be ourselves without fear of judgement.

Getting Offended

As soon as my kids became teens and became a part of the social media world, I started seeing what we now see every day, people being judged, mocked, and bullied. Nowadays it seems to be the norm to see hateful comments. There’s a whole range of topics these comments cover. From appearances, beliefs, political views, how we raise our children, you name it. And it’s not just among strangers, but families tearing down other family members.

When did it become acceptable to rip someone apart just because they don’t believe the same as we do? Or because they look different? Or because they didn’t vote for the same President as you? As far as I’m concerned, it still isn’t okay. I see posts where someone will call out the other for being hateful. So, what do they do? Cuss them out, call names and… be hateful. It’s ironic that the very thing one accuses the other of, suddenly becomes acceptable simply because they disagree or become offended.

Now I know this is a topic that we could spend all day on, on so many levels. But for now, let’s stick to the topic at hand. Back to being ourselves. I wonder how many of us have not posted a pic cause we didn’t approve of our appearance, or how many times we didn’t voice our opinion for fear of retaliation. I wonder how many, in the pit of depression, haven’t reached out for help for fear of rejection or ridicule.

Show Yourself Some Grace

What if instead of hiding our “mess”, we granted ourselves some grace. What if instead of looking at our flaws as shameful, we embraced them as part of who we are. What if we opened up about our struggles to others, letting them know that we don’t have it all together, allowing them to help us and us help them.

Instead of cropping out the pile of laundry in the background, leave it, it’s okay if your home isn’t “Pinterest-perfect”. It’s okay if life got busy and you had take-out for the second…okay, third time this week. It’s okay if your summer body isn’t bikini ready.

Let’s be real about who we really are and stop trying to be everything that we’re not. Sure, it’s good to want to better ourselves, or to be more healthy. But it’s not okay to feel we have to hide ourselves for fear of judgement. We all have our stories that make us who we are. We all have pasts, we all have our mess. But by the grace of God, He can turn our mess into a message. A message of hope and encouragement. Let’s stop hiding and embrace the beauty of the moment.