Today my husband posted beautiful pictures on Facebook of our Fourth of July brunch, and then I shared them on my page. My bright, happy sunflower plates loaded with goodies made a fine table, and I enjoyed the abundance displayed in those pictures.
But my heart is agitated.
I’m wondering what image I projected to the Facebook friends who don’t know me well. Do people think I’m a gourmet? That my house looks like something in Southern Living? The pictures were true, but viewed by someone not “in the know,” they could lie.
Here’s what I mean.
That meal was a triumph for me, a celebration in some tough stuff. Summer is always lean with our family business, and I was a bit stressed when my family shared hopes for the holiday. A trip to the grocery store wasn’t an optio
n, so most of the meal was scrounged from storage from better days or improvised. On top of that, the American Dream seems far away. The dryer went out on the 3rd. My kitchen Aide blew when I made the bread dough on the Fourth. The pictures don’t show that the platters are strategically placed to cover the places on the table where the wood laminate is worn off.
But none of that shows on my pretty Facebook status. It looked good. Norman Rockwell good, if not quite Martha Stewart.
Is that wrong? Is sharing my happy moment perpetuating some kind of lie? We did have that meal. It was a beautiful Moldenhauer moment. Praise the Lord for the blessings!
But life isn’t all ease around here, and THAT part doesn’t show on those happy status posts.
My concern is that some sweet friend will see my happy moments and hurt, thinking we have a life we don’t. I worry she’ll look at her worn sofa, scratched up table, or dwindling food stores and not know I get it. All that stress she already feels will be exacerbated by feelings of being left out of the “good” life.
My mind conjures a million different thoughts about all this, but here’s the bottom line of my heart:
Friend, if you’re one of those hurting today, feeling left out of the American Dream on July 5th, 2012, know this:
1) You’re not alone. I set a beautiful table yesterday, but my carpet is still held together with duck tape, and I’m praying in the milk money.
2) Don’t take the public face everyone wears as the full story. Nobody is perfect. Nobody lives the perfect life. We are all in this together.
3) Into every life rain and sunshine come. Grab a hold of the sunshine moments. Take a picture. Post it to Facebook or simply to your heart. Write about the good times in your journal, or at least pause a moment to breathe a bit of gratitude. We’ll drown if we only hold our face to the rain.
So, let’s start here. How about celebrating YOUR sunshine moment by leaving a comment and telling me about it—not in the spirit of one who has it all, but as one who grabs the good and stands in triumph even when the going gets tough.