wait....but I want her life..

Do you ever find yourself gazing out the window of life and seeing that other life that you wish could be yours. You know, its the girl with the Mary Poppins life...practically perfect in every way. HER REALITY: Her house is adorably decorated and ALWAYS clean, her children are well behaved and look like little Target add models most of the time, her husband brings her flowers, cooks and cleans for her, and takes the kids every Saturday so she can have a day all to herself. Money seems to be limitless in their household. She is thin, but eats what she wants because she runs 5 days a week. She knows her Bible better than most and shares her latest passage she has memorized with you on the phone, Psalm 119. Her marriage is perfect, she has friends galore, and in conversation with others about her, everyone is more than generous in the compliments they praise her with. YOUR REALITY: Your house is, at best, clean once a month, your kids are usually messy from playing outside in the dogs food, water, and poop. You are struggling financially to get by, your hubby never gives you a day to yourself, you need to lose that last 15 pounds of baby fat, you don't have time for exercise, and your lucky if you can remember what you have to do today let alone memorize any Bible verses. People don't seem to sing your praises in conversations about you, in fact, you are pretty sure your name doesn't even get brought up in conversations. Oh the pain of your reality in comparison to her reality...or what looks to be her reality. It is healthy to admire someone and to learn from them in ways that your life will benefit. In my 20's I had two kids and a third on the way, I had a friend similar to this 'perfect' one I am talking about here. I used to compare my life with her to where it became unhealthy for me. I learned many wonderful things from her, I learned how to get my home in great order, learned how to schedule my cleaning throughout the week, learned how to cook some delicious and healthy food. But the reality of what I perceived was her reality wasn't reality at all. Yes, she did have some awesome things going for her, that couldn't be denied, but she had may areas of struggle that she learned to cover. She worked very hard at giving that ' I have it all together' image. But, weather a person truly has it all together, or just works really hard at giving off the perception that they have it all together, isn't the focus here, the focus here is learning to accept the imperfections of life and grow from them. Put on your God glasses for a moment. God has plans for our lives, for every facet. His desire is that we are humble and dependent on Him. Struggles humble us...that is a GOOD thing. Imperfect lives cause us to see our deep need for a PERFECT savior. When our lives are imperfect and we are brave enough to let others in on that reality, we bring comfort to their souls, because they long to connect with another imperfect person as are they. There is such release of pressure when others see that its ok not to be perfect. Its ok to argue with your husband at times, to let your kids wear mis-matched clothes and to have boogers running down their noses. Its ok to not have the house spic and span 24/7. It's ok to not have money for all the luxuries in life, MONEY DOES NOT MAKE YOU BETTER OR HAPPIER! When we fall into the comparing trap, we when look out the window of life and long for they lives they have, we are telling God He has made a mistake with our life. We need to embrace where we are at today. WE need to evaluate what we can work to improve on, but we need to understand that God has us where we are, with the husband we have, the kids we have, the income we get, the friends we have, the home we have, the neighborhood we live in, for HIS reasons, to work what HE wants to work in and through us. Change that attitude of wishing you had...to thank you for what I have. Our lives are a written prescription by the perfect physician just for us. He knows what we need, who we need, and how much we need of it, so surrender to him and EMBRACE all that you have, let go of what you wish you had, and be content....knowing that God will bless you for your choice to be thankful and bloom right where you are planted. Circumstances don't make a person happier anyways...maybe more comfortable, but real happiness is internal, dependent upon the condition of your heart...a life rightly connected to and abiding in Jesus...make Him your passion, and when you do, all the sudden your tiny house seems much bigger, your empty bank account seems plentiful, your seemingly insignificant life has huge purpose and meaning. We just have to discipline our minds to meditate on what really matters in this life...being humble followers of Jesus Christ.