Picture Perfect

It's so easy to find ourselves caught up on social media....scrolling through other people's timelines and comparing our lives to theirs...it's a place for most folks to hype up what's good about their lives...they post updates of where they are, what they are doing and who they are with....filtered selfies of themselves and their friends....or with their significant other and/or children. Social media makes things look good...it can make things, most things, look picture perfect. It's so easy to get caught up in feeling jealous, discouraged and depressed because we are busy comparing our lives to someone else's picture perfect life, but the truth is we don't see what goes on behind closed doors. Social media doesn't highlight their bad moments or weak moments. It typically doesn't display their tears or their heartaches. It doesn't glory in their moments of failure.

Wedding things with my friends

We don't see the battles they face on a daily basis. We don't see the brokenness that may lie behind their smile. We don't see the depression they have to push past to just have their feet hit the floor in the morning. We don't see the anxiety and racing thoughts that keep them awake at night. We don't see their past or what they've been through. We don't see the cup of fruit-punch their cute little 2 year old just spilled all over their brand new white rug before they took family photos. We don't see the argument or disagreement that married couple just had while we are looking at their happy go lucky candid instagram photos. There is simply so much that we just don't see.......

Work friends celebrating Keri's 30th!

If one were to scroll through my social media page, they are going to see me in pictures smiling with my friends. They are going to find out that I am basically obsessed with my friends and brag about them all the time. They are going to see my many ridiculous just because I can and my makeup is on fleek selfies. They are to learn that I am generally a happy go-lucky, bubbly and down to earth kind of gal. They are going to find out that I believe black lives matter. If they dig deep enough, they may also find some posts about my testimony and where I was and what I went through and where the Lord has brought me from....and yes, y'all will find out that I love Jesus and don't keep my faith a secret. Great life, right?! Too bad life truly isn't as simple as social media makes it....

Raggae night with my Dida

The people I am most vulnerable around is my family and my co-workers. On a daily basis, they see me at some of my weakest and most frustrating moments. They see me when my fuel is low. When I'm tired. When I'm angry. When people are getting on my last nerve.They are the people who spend the most time with me by default. They see my many moments of imperfection, my many moments of failure. Social media does a good job at making it seem like we got it all together, but the truth is that we don't. I don't. You don't. Nobody does. 

Family fun weekend in Pitt!

What people won't see on my social media is that I fight with myself almost daily in the mirror...that yes, just because I no longer have an eating disorder doesn't mean that I don't still struggle with my body/self image. They don't see the moments of tears where I am in prayer broken before the Lord because so often I feel like my best just won't ever be good enough...that no matter how hard I try to be a better friend, a better daughter, a better teacher.....and....a better Christian...that I just can't seem to measure up. They don't see my anxious moments or the times where my thoughts keep me up at night. They don't see the insecurities that still weigh me down and sometimes hold me back. They don't see the fight that I have to fight through mentally to just make a decision because sometimes I easily get fearful of making the wrong one. Yes, at times I too struggle with fear like many others, but no you won't see that on social media. So, incase my social media fooled you into thinking I live a picture perfect life....you just got a glimpse of my not so perfect life..and yes, someone out there definitely has it worse than I do, and no I don't hate life, but I am humanly flawed.

Sneak peak of my quiet time w/ the Lord

I say all that vulnerably...it's so easy to look at someones life and think they have it all together...that they know where they are heading in life....what they want to do. It's so easy to view others through all the filters we have access to on snapchat, instagram, facebook, etc. It's so easy to get lost in someone else's picture perfect life. Let's stay focused.

Xoxo,

Beth

Joy is the best kind of makeup

A Diamond In The Rough

We have all heard the saying that a diamond is a girls best friend, but typically what we don't hear about is the rough process a diamond actually goes through to become the beautiful, valuable, expensive rock that it is considered to be.

Diamonds are formed in the earths mantle where they undergo extreme heat and heavy pressures. They go through a process that refines them and defines them to make them their most beautiful self. We go through a very similar experience throughout our own lives. We go through times where the heat is turned all the way up and the pressure is intense. Those are the moments I find that I'm in the midst of my process, that God is doing a work in my heart smoothing out some of those rough edges. I'm human. You're human. We live in an imperfect, broken, sinful and fallen world. The beauty of this process though in the midst of the pain, the hurt, the rejection, the abandonment, the abuse or whatever else you may have endured is that the Lord promises to finish what HE began. 

Philippians 1:6
"And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue this work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns"

It's so easy to get caught up in the fast paced life that we live in this fast paced world. We expect ourselves to quickly reach the mark of perfection that we so desperately strive to reach. The truth is, we won't meet that mark until Jesus returns...so for now, we cling to the promise that He made to finish what He began! When we look at a diamond and think about it's deeper meaning, it literally represents process. You may be a diamond in the rough, but you are also a diamond in the making! The heat and pressure of life may be turned all the way up (I know this to currently be true for my own life) and some days I feel like I just can't win, but I'm reminded that this too shall pass and I am being refined into the image of God and defined by His love and not this worlds. People will love you one day and hate you the next. 

My friend Kera who
just recently got engaged!
Congrats lady!





Isn't it interesting how when folks get engaged and then married a diamond ring is typically exchanged? From my perspective, it's a promise to honor the process of two imperfect human beings becoming one. A reminder to not quit when the going gets tough, to not throw in the towel and give up because life has turned up the heat and the pressure seems to be too much to bear.

Isaiah 43:2
"When you go through deep waters, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown. When you walk through the fire of oppression you will not be burned up, the flames will not consume you"

Wherever you may find yourself in your process, please don't quit. Don't quit on yourself and do not quit on the Lord. He is for you and not against you. He loves you and goes before you promising to never fail you. It's so easy to feel that God has forgotten about us in the heat of life, but we have to remember that He didn't promise a perfect life free from trouble, but He did promise we wouldn't have to go through it alone.

Xoxo,
Beth

Some of the diamonds I call friends.