The weather is finally leaning towards summer, and I can’t wait. Don’t get me wrong; spring is nice with the flowers, the sun, and Easter. However, spring also brings rain, dirt, wind, and overall inconsistent weather days. Maybe it’s just me, but I’m a summer girl through and through.
Summer has changed over the years, though, if I think about it.
It’s no longer a carefree time of lake days and road trips with my pre-baby body like my high school and college days reflected. Now, there’s much more involved, like taking time off work, budgeting for a vacation, and of course, the mom bod in a swimsuit.
Now, of course, it’s not all about swimsuits, but isn’t this is the cherry on top of how we should be performing as moms? We all know that the pressure is on to look a certain way when at the pool with our kids this summer. No matter how many kids you’ve had or how long ago you did have kids, there is pressure to “bounce back” and appear like we never allowed our bodies to grow and nourish a baby in the first place.
There’s also a comparison when it comes to our summer plans.
Many of our friends will make several beach trips this summer, maybe even an overseas trip and a Disney trip or two. Being a nurse and married to a pastor, that is not a reality in our season of life right now. This adds so much pressure that we should be doing more, taking our kids to see this or that, and feeling jealous that we cannot do the same things.
I think the comparison list goes on and on for the motherhood culture. When our kids do something amazing, we post a video on Instagram, but in turn, some other mom then worries why their 3-year-old isn’t mastering that skill. Home décor, I can barely keep up. I feel like I just conquered the farmhouse look, and now it’s moving on to mid-century modern. I think we all know that there is more to everyone’s lives outside of what we see on Instagram. There are messy houses, imperfect trips, and flawed bodies. However, I think we’re all looking for a better version of ourselves to showcase.
As a Christian, I believe that there is more than keeping up with the standards of the world. In fact, I openly admit that I will never meet the standards of the world. I know my family will have our own convictions and make decisions based on our beliefs and what works best for us. It has been a long journey, still in the process, actually, to come to the point of only comparing myself to the only perfect one, Jesus, and not other people. I will continue to struggle with this and need grace every day when I chose to point my direction to anything other than Him.
