I wonder sometimes if I am the only one who scrolls through my social media and find myself a little bit jealous of other families who are “perfect”.  You know the ones I am talking about… the family with a beautiful woman and her husband and their children.  They are all looking lovely and dressed nice with big smiles on their face.  You can tell they are just perfect.  They have a beautiful home and it’s like their kids never make a mess.  It’s as if they have the perfect marriage.  I keep up with their vacations and baseball games.  Family nights and date nights.  I literally find myself in aw and also super depressed because…. well…. I don’t have that.

Social media can be a wonderful tool for us, but I think it can also sometimes be a not so helpful tool as we constantly compare ourselves to others.  For me, it is the fact that I do not have a significant other.  My son doesn’t have a father figure.  I want to live life with someone eventually so I envy others who already have that!  Not to mention my personal battles and insecurities.  I see the “perfect people” and think about how jealous I am of their awesome metabolism and blessed genes.

What we sometimes overlook is the fact that photos can cover up ALOT.  We might see a happy family, but we do not always see a story behind that photo.  We are not seeing the struggles of mental illness.  We do not see the struggles of marriage issues they are currently having.  Maybe someone is dealing with a health issue we do not know about.  Addiction.  Loss.  Abuse.  Debt.  Maybe that beautiful girl is actually struggling every single day with depression and self-esteem issues herself.  My point is that we ALL have struggles.  We ALL deal with things that others do not know about.  It is so easy to cover those things up and portray ourselves as being perfect.  It is so easy to scroll through social media and find ourselves envying someone else’s perfect lifestyle or family.  What I challenge myself and others to do is to stop focusing on what we don’t have and start focusing on what we DO have.  Stop looking at others and thinking about how they are perfect and start reminding yourself that NO ONE is perfect.  When we experience loss, whether that is by death, relationship, divorce, etc.,… we experience an emptiness that makes it even easier to focus on things that others have that we do not.  Let’s do our best to not worry so much about those things and start focusing on ourselves and finding happiness in life with what we do have!

In time, things will get better.  In time, you will start to have what your heart desires.  Be patient, have Faith and trust in His timing.  ❤

“Mommy, when am I getting a new daddy?”.  Those were the words from my little boy who will be 5 years old in just 4 short days.  This is a question he has been asking me since he was 2.5/3 years old.  As a parent, we want to be able to give our children everything their heart desires… especially if it is something that means so much like this.  Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to give him this yet.  My only response I know to say is… “When God is ready, he will send us someone very special!”… today I asked Landon why he wants a dad in his life… his response was sweet as he says “so I can have a daddy to play with”.  “And I want a baby brother.”  You could tell he had been thinking about this for a few minutes before he asked me.  Then, like his strong little self… he just went right back to playing with the bubbles in the bathtub like it was no big deal.

Truth is… my heart falls every time he mentions this to me.  I know life sometimes gives us things that we do not understand, but it hurts worse when there is an innocent child involved.  I do not understand why God chose us.  Why He chose Landon to endure this.  I do not understand a lot of things.  I do know that I can not allow myself to dwell on the sadness and the things we do not have right now.

What we can do… is love.  Love every moment you have with those you care about.  Life can get so busy and hectic that we sometimes forget the small things and the small moments that mean so much… moments that we may not truly appreciate until they are no longer there.  Play with your children, be there for them, and do everything you can to show them how much you love them.  If you have someone special in your life… cherish everything and be kind.  Love with your whole heart and when there are struggles, communicate and figure it out in love, patience and kindness.  Not all relationships work out and that is okay.  But, what is important is to always show kindness and love in all situations.  I will keep praying for strength and will continue to pray that God gives Landon strength and understanding in these moments like we had today.  We do not always understand things in life, but we have to have Faith that all things will work out the way they are meant to… as long as we are true to ourselves and are our BEST selves!