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One word. Five minutes to write about it. This is the idea behind Five Minute Friday and this is today's free-writing post.
fake news
fake flowers
fake it till you make it
"fakebook"
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For a long time I have jokingly referred to Facebook as "fakebook". For plenty of reasons. But the obvious one is that the majority of us there are presenting a rather fake version of ourselves. Some more than others, yes. And that's just the way it is all over social media, and even in life. We try to tidy our house before someone comes to visit; we put our accomplishments rather than our failures on our resumes; we tell our funny and interesting stories rather than the boring humdrum ones; we share the photos that turn out well on Instagram rather than the blurry ones with our thumb in the way; and we present ourselves on fakebook and elsewhere in the way we think will make us look like we've got it all together.
Only fake happiness comes with the compulsion to flaunt it. ~Mokokoma Mokhonoana
I don't want others to see the mess and clutter and junk I shove in the closet. I don't want everybody to see me without makeup. That's understandable, and listen, not everybody needs to see all of that. Oversharing is not a good thing either, and there's a lot of stuff that just isn't anybody else's business. Keep that stuff private. Don't dump your dirty laundry all over social media.
But we all need to be real with some close friends we can trust. Who will comfort us and encourage us when we're a mess, and who will also have the courage to tell us the truth when we need to get cleaned up or throw some stuff in the trash. And we all need to be real with God. He knows what's really going on anyway, and isn't fooled for even one hot minute by our fake smiles and claims that we're doing just fine. We're not fine. I'm not fine. I need help. I need Jesus or I'm hopeless.
Fake happiness is the worst kind of sadness. ~Dominic Riccitello
Let's not be fake with God. He knows how messed up we are and he loves us anyway. He knows all the crap we're dealing with and trying to hide, and he will help us with all of it if we just trust him with the truth.
If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
~I John 1:6-9~
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Life is too short for fake butter or fake people. ~Karen Salmansohn
My fake plants died because I did not pretend to water them. ~Mitch Hedberg
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Thank you for your writing and for your encouragement today. I let my hair go gray at 50 because I didn’t want to try to fake my hair color. I don’t use fillers - my wrinkles aren’t fake.
ReplyDeleteI do try to present myself well in a way that honors my Creator, but hopefully not in a fake way.
Ha ha I hope my children and grandchildren gain a fondness for truth and reality.
“Fake happiness is the worst kind of sadness.” ~Dominic Riccitello
I also let my hair go gray by the time I was 50, but I liked fake colors before that! haha I think we draw lines in different places between "presenting ourselves well" and "being fake" and that's okay - we're not all the same. Thanks for visiting today.
DeleteI totally agree it is so important to be upfront and real with our Heavenly Father who sees it all anyways, He loves us and is not surprised by our messes, so we can be real not fake with Him.
ReplyDeleteIt's so true. We need people in our lives that we can be true with. And I've learned, that often God helps us with something even before we know the help. So cool when that happens! FMF2
ReplyDeleteI used to think I should be real,
ReplyDeleteand live out my veracity,
but I learned, baby, here's the deal:
people don't want that from me.
They look at my spreading shoulders,
partake of my chiseled abs
and think of me as toting boulders
with laughs enough for two black Labs,
and so I learned to play the role
wanted by adoring fans,
and thereby kept my image whole,
for that was wholly in my hands,
and in the end I did become
the shining myths I walked among.
I love how you sprinkled in quotes, scripture, and music in just the right places.
ReplyDeleteLesson learned!
Excellent post and quotes.
ReplyDeleteI've saved it to my bookmarks.