Facebook frosting are those not intrinsically bad, "yummy" posts.
"Date night last night...followed by 8 hours of sleep...and tomorrow we leave to backpack through Tuscany!"
There's nothing wrong with these posts. But if this is the entirety of what you tell and hear-- that's another story.
About 3 years into marriage, Josh and I revisited our honeymoon spot -- West Palm Beach, Florida. We had a blast crossing off every pizza dive and fun memory we "just had to do again" from our first visit. Of course, when our nostalgia list ran low, we allowed a couple of new places to cross our path. We had our eye on an ice cream parlor for days called Kilwins. The waffle cone smell determined our destiny. The night we decided to try it, the cone baking smell was so intoxicating we somehow thought it a good idea to skip dinner and get a waffle BOWL full of ice cream as our full meal deal. Hmmmm... About 30 minutes later, we raced to a Subway, laughing through the belly aches at our newfound knowledge----"this is why our parents told us not to let dessert ruin our dinner!" Dessert was never supposed to replace our dinner either!
The frosting on our facebook pages are like that--they're fun and interesting. But wouldn't you agree the sustenance comes from the updates of real life? Wrestling over a hard decision. Emotions about your children growing up. Fears. Striving. Wishing you had time to put on something besides sweatpants before your husband gets home from work. That's real life.
Maybe it's a personal preference to leave your facebook audience out of real life details and that's completely fine. But do we have someone or a handful of someones in our life that we share the real life struggles with? Not to find pleasure in someone else's trial--but to find community.
And it's not just for your benefit. Think about your friends' stories that have meant something to you. It's been years, but I still think about Amanda's "I Missed the Party" post. Before I linked her blog, I pulled up the name of the post from memory. When we relate, these stories get engrained into us. It's an encouragement to see fellow believers who know how to celebrate life as well process disappointments. I love getting ideas from others about girls' night activities, projects and family vacations. But a delectable combination occurs when I hear from those same people I admire in the positive matters of life about how they came on the other side of a struggle. These are the things that cement in others' brains. This is the stuff we remember. These are the stories we take to heart and literally become our heart when we find ourselves in a similar situation.
Beware of a life solely made of facebook frosting. Make sure it doesn't transcend into all of your relationships. The real life stories build us up, open us up and bind us together.
Photo credit:]
Ben Earwicker
Garrison Photography, Boise, ID
www.garrisonphoto.org
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