Things Are Not Always as They Seem - or How They Look on Facebook :)

For a long time, I've resisted being on Facebook, mainly because I know that it's something that I could end up wasting a lot of time on. Finally, I decided to take the plunge and do a better job of keeping in touch with my siblings and be able to see pictures of all my sweet nieces and nephews. I miss my family and friends in PA, and I'm glad to be able to see all of their smiling faces more often – if only through the internet.

One of the other reasons I've resisted Facebook is because I feel like it's far too easy to put a good “face” on and hide all the stuff I don't want everyone to see or know about. It's easy to just appear to be how I want everyone else to see me. And truth be told, I don't think that Facebook is the place for me to “air my dirty laundry” or to share all my struggles and hard things. Those things are best kept between me and God and a few trusted friends.

But I want you to know that when you see our smiling faces on Facebook, things aren't always as they appear. Oh, the truth is that Dan and I are just as happy with each other as we look on Facebook . :) But that doesn't mean that everything is always perfect. And we love and enjoy our kids just as much as it looks like we do, but that doesn't mean everything is perfect either.

Looking at my Facebook gives you such an incomplete look at my life. For example, when you saw that picture of our nice new kitchen, I didn't have to show you a picture of the school room (which was a disaster zone at the time). And when you saw those pictures from the birthday party, I didn't have to show you a picture of my face when I almost started crying because the noise and chaos were just a bit too much after a long week. And the first time we walked to that pretty spot in the place my kids call “The Valley” - well, the first time we walked there, I decided to take the kids there because my stomach was in knots and my heart was so sad because someone I love needs Jesus so much. We all just needed to go for a walk and get our minds off of a hard situation.

 Now of course, I'm not going to put all those things into my Facebook posts! Sure, sometimes I might share some difficult thing that is happening in our family, or something that's not just happy. But most pictures that you see on my Facebook will be of the fun things our family does together, the happy times, the moments full of joy. Just remember that you're seeing an incomplete picture of our lives. Some days are really hard. We don't always get along. We have difficult situations in our lives, just like you do. So just remember – things are not always how they look on Facebook. :)