The grass is greener...Or is it?

The grass is always greener on the other side, or is it?

We live in a world where bigger is better and beauty is defined by what you see on the cover of a magazine.

I admit, I am as guilty as anyone else. I see the Instagram “life”. I see the mom that never yells and always has perfect put together children…I “see” it all. I “want” what they have. I mean, who wouldn’t want that life.

I also see the life I don’t want. I see the bitter mom, the angry mom. The mom that yells too much. I think to myself, “I will NEVER be that bad, right?”

I can remember walking into a store a few weeks after Bethany had died. I was numb and pretty much walking through the mundane motions of day to day life. I can remember thinking that so many people were happy and I could not understand for the life of me why. How could anyone be happy? How could life seem so normal to everyone else and yet feel so distant and broken to me? I got what I needed and went to check out. I was trying to hurry and leave, and without even looking up I heard the haunting words coming from the cashier. “Thank God you’re not pregnant. Everyone through my line today has been pregnant.” My heart froze. I froze. I never even looked up. I paid and ran from the store as fast as my legs could run.

For days her words haunted me like a bad dream, only it wasn’t a dream, it was my reality. I wasn’t pregnant and my baby was not coming back. At first I was angry that God had not shielded me from her words. I didn’t think my heart could take anymore, and then it hit me. What about her? What was this girl going through to cry out to a stranger and say such a thing? Had she too lost a baby? Was the sight of pregnant women giving her such pain her heart and soul couldn’t take it?

I got it. I finally got it.

We ALL have baggage. We ALL think we want to be on the other side of someone’s life. The grass always looks greener when you are just a bystander looking in. 

Their is someone out there crying out for help. A cashier, a mom or dad. The waitress with a forced smile on her face. The so called perfectionist mom you see at church every Sunday that always says “I’m fine” when you ask politely how she is.

The truth is; pain is pain. It runs deep and it is raw. There are those who are fighting to heal relationships. Battling to save a marriage or keep their children. Those battling mental illness. Too many who wake up numb and scared the pain will never go away.

The battle is raging and the question remains…Where is your armor?

God’s word is my light, my foundation to keep me grounded. I don’t want to be like that “perfect” mom or the bitter mom, because neither one truly exists. I see what I want to see. I make the perfect mom look unrealistic when in reality she is just as real and raw as the rest of us. I make the bitter mom look bad to make myself feel better… OUCH! 

What would happen if we lived in a world where we didn’t put so many expectations on each other? What if we craved to follow the example of Christ and not the so called version of what this world tells us is right. What if we actually helped one another through life instead of blaming each other for every wrong this world has to offer?

I imagine we would learn to love more deeply. The kind of love that comes from our Savior. We would stop judging others so quickly and stop assuming others are judging us. We would serve like Him, Love like Him and more than anything… grow in knowledge and wisdom of who He really is and created us to be! We would truly learn that maybe, just maybe, 

LOVE really can change the world!!!