Just As We Are

Someone will always be better.

A better parent. A better teacher. A better friend, cook, decorator, or dresser. Someone will inevitably show up who is faster, wiser, funnier, smarter or prettier.

There exists on the internet a virtual multitude of more eloquently written and entertaining blogs than the one you're reading right now.

In our "Pinterest-esque" society someone will give a better party, set a prettier table or make a fancier wreath to put on their door. Just when you finally get the creative inspiration to spray some pine cones gold and use some RIBBON THAT IS WIRED for goodness sake, that very afternoon someone will post a tutorial on how to transform an "hideously ugly" wreath (that looks mysteriously just like your proud new creation) into something presentable.

But just barely.

Do you, like me, have a tendency to compare yourself to others? To always feel slightly behind? To get tied up in the almost arrogant pursuit of perfection?

Anyone?

(I'm raising two hands over here)

Let's think about it. Do we desire to adopt a platform that makes us appear not necessarily perfect, of course, but just almost? Are we too afraid of transparency to go to the grocery store without makeup, send our kids to school without loving messages air-brushed on their lunch box bananas or admit to the world that we just absolutely cannot do it all?

How sad for us.

The arrogance in this is certainly unintended. Hopefully we don't set out to make ourselves the better one. In most cases it's purely the result of impossibly high internal standards. We truly want to be better for our family, our students, our friends. And this is perfectly good to a point. We all need to strive to be the best "us" that we can.

But what if we lose sight of the uniqueness in which we were created? What then? What happens when the 'march to perfection' mentality makes us virtually indistinguishable from one another?

When we disguise the perfection that comes from God reflected in us by donning a picture-perfect human facade, we deny the beauty and transparency that we all individually offer.

Without improvement.

Without a spotlessly clean house or a designer wardrobe, model children or gourmet meals. Without a better wreath, a more fashionable haircut or a more amazing kid's birthday party plan.

Let's stop waiting til we have more, know more, can offer more. Let's blog and teach and parent and friend the best we can with all we currently have.

Let's be us right now. This very minute.

Just as we are.