See this photo? I used a filter so I would look less tired, so I might actually look like I've got this thing down? Maybe? I'm not really sure what my intent is in using a filter, other than I look WAY better than not using the filter. Yesterday my sister in law's sister in law (confused yet?), posted an instagram photo that was real. It was refreshing and stirred my soul to something I believe God has been speaking into my heart for sometime. "You are enough."

There's  a fine line between bettering oneself and shaming oneself. I think it's smart to better oneself- find ways to bless your husband, show him grace, find ways to enjoy your children and challenge them with fun, and new activities, exercising to be healthy, etc. Bettering oneself. Shaming oneself, is doing those things with the heart of guilt and shame - doing them because we are trying to justify ourselves, and find our value in the things we do - never feeling like we will ever be enough. Lately, I've fallen guilty of shaming myself. I'm not a good enough wife. I'm not a good enough  mom. This mom thing seems so easy for other moms. I don't have time to care about the toxicity of all the cleaners and soaps I use, because just being able to find the time to use cleaners and soaps to get something clean can be hard. I use Johnsons & Johnsons shampoo.. wait? Thats bad! I'm now a horrible mommy. Watson has eaten oranges and bananas and beans every day for a week. I don't do things well enough. If I do something,  there is someone who can do it better, etc. etc. etc. I'm shaming myself. - These are the things I tell myself. I try to justify myself by what I post on instagram/social media or what I see others post. {Social Media sucks! [[love hate relationship]]}

The TRUTH is, Jesus has already justified all of this on the cross. I don't need to try to justify myself at all, Jesus has already done this. When God looks at me, he says "you're enough." He says this, because he sees Jesus (2 Cor. 4:6) - and Jesus is enough. God chooses to see past all my flaws, pride, insecurity (which is also a form of pride - blog for another time), weaknesses and sins, and chooses to see perfection - and he says., "you are enough." Being a mom is already hard, why do I make it harder by trying to justify myself against other moms who have different personalities, different children, different husbands and different experiences? Well, because I'm sinful and I'm human, but what a great reminder the gospel brings us - we are enough. I am enough, you are enough. God sees us in our weakness and he loves us in our weakness (2 Cor. 12:9). In fact, I believe God chooses to see WHO we are before he sees our failures (and many times what we deem as failure - I don't think he does at all- we are silly creatures) He sees us, he loves us and he whispers to our hearts "you are enough."


God chose me to be Seth's wife and Watson's momma. We're going to have and hold and teach and train differently than someone else, and God deemed it that way. We have different personalities, different relationships, different experiences and that's OKAY and not only is it okay, it's beautiful. I am enough, my family is enough and I hope that I can not only say those things but truly believe them with my heart and my head. We are all aiming for the same goal, we will do that differently but we will proclaim the same gospel. I feel like I am now rambling, so I'm going to leave it at that. thanks for reading and for loving me :-)

Lara <3