Pinterest on Earth

Good afternoon sweetie!!

I love Pinterest.  It is a combination design center, recipe vault, and eye candy store.  My family has benefitted from the recipes I have tried (well most of them :) ).  I have saved time and money by learning how to refinish cabinets inexpensively, and I have a slew of gift ideas.

However, Pinterest is like everything else--able to be abused and not quite accurate :).  For example, some pins are actually not possible.  Someone just made up "water marbles" (which is a disappointment because they are beautiful!).  And NEVER ever break open a glow stick and pour it into a bathtub--the capsule inside is made of glass!  It is EASY to become discontent looking at all those beautiful photos of far away lands, incredible houses, and 21 year old bodies without an ounce of fat.  It is possible to be so taken by the pretty pictures that one starts to find discontent in their own lives.  

Plus it can be a huge time waster.  If looking up "organizational ideas" on pinterest is keeping us from actually....y'know....ORGANIZING, then we achieve nothing :)

For all its potential pitfalls, though, it is my favorite online place.  I poured over photos of green trees and pretty gardens when the temp was -45.  It was a bit of a sanity keeper for me.

Now, though, we live in the south where the trees are green and the irises are blooming..  Just the other day, Precious and I were hiking by a pond taking "pinterest pictures".  Precious is an AMAZING photographer.  She has the best natural eye I have ever seen, and I knew there would be a ton of great photos.  I took my ipad out, knowing I could take ton of mediocre photos :).  We scouted angles and scenes and vignettes.  I thought that perhaps I might even post a few on pinterest.

And then it occured to me.  No where in the photos of lush forests on Pinterest can you see the rampant poison ivy.  No one posts a pic of a lovely farmer's field with the golden morning sun gently tickling the delicate petals of wild daisies and then says "After this shoot, we found 87 ticks between the two of us and our dog....and apparently this is a cow pasture".  None of the garden shots show botrytis mold on the strawberries.  None of the work out photos confess to photoshopping.  None of the recipes posted tell how the three year old DESPISED the chocolate dipped cauliflower that "tastes JUST LIKE Godiva truffles!".  Even in the gorgeous winter scenes of Alaska, which is "Queen Frostine's Castle" beautiful and eminently photo-worthy, you never read about how it was so cold that the hairs in your nose freeze and make it itch.

Every photo on pinterest is a split second shot of "perfection".  It is not possible on earth, but that is ok!!  It is fine!  Life, with its imperfections, is amazing.  

Part of a problem I have had in the past is trying to have a PERFECT life--waiting for the right move, my work to be just right, I to be in the right shape....everything worthy of a full pinterest spread.  How much time I lost in discontent because I had looked for perfection, reached beyond my grasp, imagined that the sun drenched horizon was where my perfect life was, and that I just needed to get there somehow to have it.  But the sun was also shining down where I was--I just did not look around my feet to see it.   I was blessed beyond measure, but still wanted more.  I also realized that my life was someone else's horizon--but they could only see the light, not the struggle of where I was.

Slowly I have been working to change that.  It has been harder some times than others, but I realized that every place is a blessing, the Lord works everything out for our good, that *I* am still the same, no matter where I am or what happens to me (meaning, if I wallow in discontent, I will ALWAYS wallow in discontent, no matter what good happens), there is so much to be thankful about at all times. and hard work and appreciation makes our lives as "pinteresty" as possible :)

I would love to hear about something in your life that you had not seen as a blessing, but are trying to see in a different light.  Or about a matter of discontent that you are changing.  Or something that you are truly thankful to the Lord for. :)  

And if you want to follow me on pinterest, let me know ;)