and if you ask me, all of this is compounded by that fact that we women have a whole other host of expectations placed upon us. [i'm not arguing that our male counterparts don't, but the expectations look different from one side to the other.] we are not only supposed to be "successful" with a spotless house, well-groomed and stylish children, either a great job or happily stay at home with the kids - depending on which side of the coin you live on - and a stylish wardrobe, perfect hair, zero wrinkles or any other indication that we may be getting older, flawless skin, the perfect body, and anything else you'd like to add to the list of unattainable, but actually expected expectations.
so let's get real for a minute. really real.
our culture is full of crap. and no matter how hard we try to attain the unattainable list listed above it's not going to happen. and frankly, if you somehow do make it happen, you'll kill yourself getting there, and you're still not going to be happy.
so what does all this mean? it means we can all breathe a sigh of relief and be really honest with each other.
we all need grace, and God is gracious enough to give us his grace. when he looks at us he sees that our price has been paid. we have been bought with the blood of Christ, and he sees us as perfect standing before him.
that means we can rest. we don't have to try to impress God. and we couldn't if we tried. but we don't even have to try. we can simply rest in him.
and we can be honest with each other about our struggles. big or small. we can honestly say that the expectations of our culture are ridiculous and unattainable and push back against them by letting our lives be defined by God and the fact that we are his children, rather than by the size of our houses, the niceness of our cars, and how well we measure up to the standards set by everyone else.
we can be honest with each other when everything is not great and wonderful and rest in the prayers of the saints lifting us up.
we can rest in the arms of our heavenly father knowing that we are perfectly accepted and perfectly loved regardless of our circumstances. regardless of what life is handing us. regardless.
xo,
katie
Katie, thank you for these insightful words. We are so geared to responding to the demands of our culture and buying into the notion that we can "have it all", when we are not even sure what the "it" is! And we have to face the fact often we are the ones who pressure ourselves to achieve this unrealistic perfection. When I catch myself doing this, I realize I have now taken on my own heavy yoke instead of Jesus' light one. It's taken many years to break the habit of striving for a certain level of perfection, not realizing where it came from or why I was not living a more joy-filled life. Yep. It was me doing it to myself. Your reminder of who we are in Jesus is a call for all of us to be more careful what we buy into, and an encouragement to put down the laundry basket and simply bask in His love!
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