Faking it

My go-to saying is "fake it till you make it."

The thing about faking it, is that we are SO good at doing it, we don't even realize that we do it anymore.

I hate to beat a dead horse with a stick, BUT this is something that's really been weighing on my mind lately. I log on to instagram every day to see some blogger or influencer talking about how "real" and "vulnerable they want to appear to their followers. 

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As they explain that "realness," their hair is just the right amount of messy, their makeup is just the right amount of smudged, the background of whatever photo they are taking is spotless, pristine, and white. Then they drone on and on about how they want to be real and how quirky they are behind the scenes.

And that's great if you like that kind of stuff! I love and fully support whatever face you want to show the world. That's totally your call.

But can we all just stop pretending that it's real.

If we were honest with ourselves, we all know that whatever that post was took at least 20 different shots and 15 different angles. After that, it probably went through a round of edits, and then a caption was written and re-written just to make sure the words sound okay, and are deep enough to make a statement, but shallow enough not to rock the boat.

Because being real, doesn't attract thousands of followers. Heck, being real barely attracts my own husband sometimes.

Jesus could only attract 12.

Real isnt pretty 90% of the time. The real you is the face that stares back at you the moment you roll out of bed. Morning breath, messy hair and all its glory. It's the time you have a to do list a mile long, but all that gets done is a tearful cry to your mom because you feel so overwhelmed. It's the screaming match you just had with your significant other because you're human and your feelings got hurt for the 100th time.

But what do us outsiders get to see?
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A post with your perfect morning messy bun and coffee cup in hand, or a super organized photo of your laptop to do list and table all aesthetically laid out, or, my favorite, a photo of you and your S.O. from just 2 months before when everything was okay.

​And that's okay! You're probably thinking to yourself right now "Yeah coming from the girl who is one of those bloggers," and you're right this does sound fairly hypocritical. 

So I'm going to use the example of some brownies I made. *DISCLAIMER* Obviously, there are more detrimental things going on in the world than a pan of brownies, but this was the example that sparked the theme of this week's post so just stick with me. 

You'll notice in the main photo depicts exactly what I'm talking about. I have a nice layout of brownies with some fall decor and a cool angle, but here's what they really looked like. ​​

Truth is, I pretty much burnt the whole pan because I didn't have the correct size, but I was so moody that night for no other reason than wanting to be moody, and all I wanted was a pan of brownies. So did I share this ugly photo of the pan on my social media? Absolutely not? It's ugly, and unimpressive, but did I make sure to take an aesthetically pleasing one so I could "fake it" for this blog. Absolutely. 

I'm not saying social media will ever change, and I don't think we will either. That's not what I'm asking. Sometimes life is beautiful and I think it's important we share beautiful things. 

But I think it's even more important that we realize that we only ever see 10% of the real story.

Ask your friends how they are really doing, and don't forget to ask yourself that same question, because a 4x4 square will never tell the whole story. 

A picture is worth 1000 words, but a person could tell you a million.

So the next time you think a person has "arrived," or "peaked," remember that each of us can only ever be human, and thank goodness because that's all we were ever created for. 

But the Lord said, "Do not look on appearance... for the Lord sees not as we see. We look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart."   1 Samuel 16:7

Your bad breath? He wants it. 
Your weakest moments? He wants them.
Your biggest regret? He will take that too. 

And we should look for that too. Look for each other when life isn't always beautiful or even shareworthy. It's easy to "fake it till ya make it," but finding true beauty in the real is much more worthwhile.