beYOUtiful

(this is my gym bag pictured above…makes me smile everyday)

i have had it on my heart to post something this mother's day. i thought about what i wanted it to say and started to type then backspace would evidently prevail. then ethan's teacher spoke at our mommy muffin day at pre-school and it was confirmed, i should stick with my original thoughts. a couple days later i found out via social media that pastor barb would be speaking about something similar…once again confirmed…just go with it.

as moms our role is so important. we are given the responsibility of nurturing, teaching, being an example, guiding, loving unconditionally and disciplining our children. we become chef's, taxi drivers, booboo fixers, counselors, tickle monsters, cinderella (my fancy word for cleaning lady), cheerleaders...anyone have more to add? somehow we pull all of this off and to others it looks effortless. to our kids we are super moms,"rock stars" and almost perfect!

in the age of social media it's easy to compare yourself to others. most of us do not post pictures of our sink full of dishes, our dirty floors, the piles of laundry awaiting the washer or an argument we had with a loved one. what about a video of your child having a meltdown…instagram worthy? of course not…the family vacations, fancy restaurants, laughing babies, exotic trips, biggest catch,  flowers for no reason, new house and the job promotion are what we view as facebook worthy. i can honestly say that i am happy for all of my facebook friends and thats genuine...i truly enjoy seeing others happiness and success. however, a year or so ago i caught myself comparing my chapter 4 with others who were on their chapter 10 in the book of life. that can be something so easy to do and yet so not fair to ourselves. once i realized what i allowed to happen i remembered something pastor mike (pastor of our church) said, "you are doing better than you think you are." pastor mike said this during a teaching to the entire congregation on what jesus would say to each of us if he came and sat down right next to us. and really that is so true…we put so much pressure on ourselves to be in a certain place in our lives by a certain time that sometimes we do not stop and enjoy everything we have to be thankful for!

so even as i type this my floors need swept, i have dishes soaking in the sink, laundry on the floor and a bleeding finger and i am okay with that. i know that all of that will still be there when i am done with this post. and truly at times i have embraced the dirty floors happy kids philosophy because its really hard for me not to stop what i am doing to cuddle or play with our son ethan!


in the day and age where we are so open about our lives on social media its really time to stop and realize there is no comparison…you are you…and we are right where we are suppose to be in this journey of life. we need to stop the comparing and realize we are doing an amazing job. stop being to hard on ourselves and know our kids adore us and all that we do. use the skills god has given us and  stop comparing our skills with others. let's rejoice with others who are getting promotions, buying new houses, getting cool jobs, going on trips or buying new cars and having babies. these are all things to be happy about and just know that we all have the skills to make our dreams come true just like anyone else and it's  just a matter of making those same things happen for ourselves.

"there is no way to be a perfect mother and a million ways to be a good one", jill churchill.

be your self and beyoutiful because you are the only one that totally rocks at being you!