A Picture speaks a thousand words
There is a process behind every picture…
In the past few weeks we have attended four weddings, a christening and various other social events where being dressed to a high standard and looking the part is almost as important as the vows themselves!
This had me thinking, the perception that “I have it all together” or “she looks great, I wonder how she does it?”
I felt forced to explain the process behind the picture, because you see, everything is not as it seems.
A Picture speaks a Thousand words
I left my house in the black shift dress, my two younger children were dressed in pretty little frocks that I had chosen from their wardrobe, we looked great!
We felt great – I think!
But, yes there is a but and a big one at that! The process to looking that great didn’t start in the house, they started weeks before in the back filing cabinet in my mind where I keep all my “ oh my gosh, what are we going to do!” thoughts.
The reality was this I ran to the nail shop to get a quick in fill, with my two year old, trying to help the technician do my nails, I then hopped on the bus back home, where I simultaneously plastered my legs with hair removal cream, whilst smoothing out my 3 year olds hair and dressing her in her pretty dress.
You see the process is never pleasing or straight forward, it requires persistence and patience. I quickly washed off the cream, and proceeded to get dressed, at the same time putting my youngest daughter’s clothes in a bag and because she had dropped off to sleep!
So I am now dressed but time is far spent, I rush to the car with the following items in my hand
- Shoes
- Make up bag
- Baby bag
- Pram
- Clothes for the baby
- Lunch –it’s going to be a long day
- Snacks for the girls
I get in the car and then disaster, the dress I chose to wear (not the one in the picture) tears, the zip has broken.
So I go back into the house, now sweating like a race horse (not pleasant I might add) choose one of two dresses to wear and change, run back to the car and off we go!
What you don’t see is behind the picture, the state of my home now upside down, clothes strewn all over the place from the hectic rush to be on time, my kitchen has breakfast bowls and cereal left where we ate it.
Behind the picture is the chaos of a very busy lifestyle with just two of my four children, the military style organisation, blood, sweat and tears.
Every picture has a process, for every woman who has to juggle the balls of life whilst carrying her family in the palm of her hands, it may seem like an impossible task, but I one thing I know to be sure, do not forfeit the process, do not hand over your family to someone or something else to get the picture right. It’s in the process that you become pure gold, and refined as diamonds.
Love the life you live! Be content in your current, it is when you try to be something that you are not, when you try to portray the picture as though there was no process, I know what it takes for me to get to that picture, there is not a team of staff, no chef, butler or personal trainer. There is on the other hand one God who I believe has given me the ability, the grace and the provision to live the life I love.
Ladies please for all its worth do not forget the process, it’s in the process that we become pure gold.