We are all a hot mess. We are faking it til’ we make it. We are all struggling in ways we don’t talk about. Yet, we are all trying to mask our mess and insecurities from the world in order to appear as perfect as possible.
Let me take a second to address the girl reading this thinking “I don’t try to mask anything, I’m not fake.” Oh, okay.
So you’ve never had a full blown fight with your partner and then posted a cute, smiling photo together for social media? #hesperfect #smitten #hesthesweetest
You’ve never cried in your pillow all weekend and then posted a cute selfie with a caption that declared your happiness to the world, followed by a bunch of hashtags like #blessed #happy #canthidethissmile #independent
Or what about that day you screamed at your kids all day, ignored them completely while you watched Netflix or scrolled through social media, and then forced them to smile and appear perfectly poised in a picture with some crazy caption like “I don’t know what I did to deserve these little miracles. Thank you Jesus for these babies.”
Or maybe you’re barely making ends meet and your bank account just went negative when you bought groceries, but you just posted pics of your latest expensive outfit you bought on a credit card with #independent #moneyonmymind #successfulwoman
We’re all guilty of putting on masks. But I don’t think we realize how harmful these masks are to everyone around us, as well as to ourselves. If we are all fighting the same attacker and dealing with the same lies, then in reality we should all be looking around and realizing none of us have it fully together and we are all in need of Jesus.
But that is not what we look around and see. We scroll through social media and feel so alone and inadequate compared to our peers.
We look around for support, yet all we see are all these people who seem to have their crap together. People who would never understand the battles we are facing.
We see the masks instead of the people.
It leaves us feeling like we don’t belong. It leaves us crying alone in our room as we scroll through the internet comparing our lives to other people our age. Never knowing that those same people sit and cry as they look at our fake masks, too.
We don’t realize that our lives appear better than theirs too.
We don’t realize that all of our desires and efforts to appear put together and “godly” actually make others feel inadequate.
There is nothing wrong with loving your life, despite the pains and heartaches you face. However, sharing that pain and sharing your story is so important. When you share all the great blessings God has provided for you, make sure you never forget to share how you got to this season of blessings.
Make sure you are more than a picture-perfect Instagram family. Make sure you are more than the perfect couple on Facebook.
Please remember that there’s a woman facing infertility scrolling through your page, and maybe all she sees are the three beautiful children you have now, but she has no idea of the pain you dealt with through miscarriages and infertility.
Or maybe the girl with bruises on her skin sees your posts about how amazing your marriage is, but she doesn’t see the season of your life when you were being abused and manipulated by a man. She doesn’t know your story about how you escaped abuse and began realizing your worth through Jesus. She doesn’t know that there’s hope for her.
Or maybe the girl who just found out her husband is having an affair sees your husband treating you like a queen today, but she doesn’t know you have experienced restoration in your marriage. She thinks her husband will never treat her the way yours does, yet your marriage has experienced a past of affairs and lies. Maybe you handed your marriage over to Jesus and he restored it and did the impossible through your husband. Maybe she needs to know that so that she will fall to her knees and pray instead of curl up in a state of depression and allow the enemy to win.
Why don’t we share that part of our story with others? Why don’t we share our testimony? Why don’t we show God’s glory through our own stories? Why do we only want others to see us in the season of God’s blessings?
When God restores your life and works miracles, the world needs to hear about it!
He doesn’t save you from your demons just so you can sit on your blessings and take all the credit.
You only have the blessed life you have because of God’s grace. He needs you to tell others what he’s done for you because he is also working things out for other’s good too. Your story of God’s goodness could be the story someone needs to hear while they’re in the middle of their storm!
He wants to use what he did for you to bring others to him. He needs you to share your story.
We are supposed to be the hands and feet of Jesus while we’re here, so why would we sit on our success and take all the credit? Isn’t it only because of God’s grace that you have such a successful marriage, career, etc?
Do you remember the days before you found hope in Jesus? Do you remember how lost and hopeless you were? What if those special people God placed in your path wouldn’t have shared their stories with you? What if those mentors God placed in your life wouldn’t have taken the time to help develop and nurture you?
Allow God to use you right where you’re at. Begin by sharing the not so glamorous chapters of your story. Begin by sharing who your success belongs to- Jesus Christ.
Share with someone how Jesus made a way where there seemed to be no way. Let someone know how God completely restored the things that you lost. Tell someone how your life began to change once you surrendered to Jesus and acted on faith.
Let’s make HIS name famous instead of our own name.
Let’s gain HIM more followers instead of ourselves.
Let’s put HIM in the spotlight and take it off of us.
Let’s stop taking ourselves so seriously and applying multiple filters on our pictures in order to be idolized by followers. Sometimes the raw, unedited moments of life are the best ones worth sharing. And those are the moments others can relate to.
Be someone that makes others feel understood and comfortable. Be someone that leads others to the name above all names.
Be a servant instead of an idol.
Serve Jesus and allow Him to become what others love about you. Let Him shine through your life!
If you’re wearing a mask, you are covering up the light of Jesus. We have to unmask the dark seasons in our lives in order to show how the light of Jesus shined through.
Courageously yours,
CS
xoxo 💛💛💛