Quick Follow-up

I apologize for those who missed part three of the Finding Balance discussion. I posted it just before we left for a week's vacation and didn't realize it got buried underneath the second part. I've fixed it now.

I also wanted to follow up the discussion about comparisons with a story. A few years ago, an acquaintance talked to me about my blog -- "How in the world do you keep your house so clean?" she asked, "In all your photos, everything is always so neat!"

At first, I was taken aback. I hadn't really posted pictures of my house on my blog back then, just my kids, and yet my friend had peeked into the background of them and concluded that my house must be immaculate.

Was my house clean and organized? Hardly -- at the time I had three-year-old twinadoes, an infant, and I was barely keeping up. I decided to tell my new friend the truth, "I don't keep it that clean -- I just don't take photos of the messes!"

I try to be honest on my blog and present real life with all its frustrations, but I'm not one to take photos of a messy house and I'm not one to dwell on the negative. I get out my camera to celebrate great times, not to document the stumbles. I'd like to do more of the latter, and I admire my friends who do, but I'm the type who always kicks myself later for not getting a "before" picture to go with the after.

That's why I loved my friend Natalie's post last week, and I love my friend Stacey's Messy Monday series.

Comments

This post reminded me of when I was teaching gospel doctrine and someone asked me how I knew so much about the scriptures. I told them I didn't--I was just careful to only ask them questions in class about the things I had studied. (Of course now I am teaching 17 year olds and they ask all sorts of questions I have never even thought of asking before). Anyway--my point being that sometimes the picture we present is not always 100% accurate. (Although I am sure your house is mostly clean all the time.) That is a good thing to remember when we look at others and think their lives are perfect or that they have so much more than we do.

And I agree with your post on balance--patience and contentment. I have had to learn the hard way to be patient with my growth--as well as the growth of others and to be happy during the growth process. I have always loved a quote by Elder Maxwell, when he talked about impatient people who are always pulling up the plants to see how the roots are doing. That is me. :-)
Stacey said…
Thanks for the mention! When I started Messy Monday it was because I didn't want people to feel like I was some abnormal mom with a pristine house. I'm just a mom with lots of kids and lots of messes! You know how it is! I really enjoyed your series on Finding Balance. It was a wonderful reminder and really put a few things in perspective for me!