The Blog Balance

Happy fall morning, y’all! And I do mean fall! We are finally feeling it here in Alabama!

My younger kids and I are taking a fall break from homeschooling this week (my oldest is in college), so I’m taking advantage of the time off to catch up on some writing I’ve been wanting to accomplish. Recipes have been my fallback posts in this busy season of schooling because they are easy and quick to post. I’m always excited over a good recipe, and love to share them, but I’ve also had other posts in mind that require more thought, and I’m happy to finally have a little more time this week to explore those ideas. One of the topics I’ve been wanting to address is the delicate balance of blogging genuinely and honestly, but with an appropriate level of privacy and respect.

Blogging and social media have come a long way since their inception when viewers just caught quick updates on their friends and family. It was a new and easy way to keep up with everyone. Later the potential for income-making, advertising, and “influencing” was becoming evident, and it took off powerfully! Those are all good things, right? I mean, increasing an income through blogging might just be how God provides for a household. And we certainly can’t deny that the Gospel can be shared daily via blogs and social media. So, yes! There are so many ways it can all be used for good, and even for Kingdom purposes. This is how I pray God uses my blog. I want to encourage women in their Godly living, especially towards the home, and I’ve been soooo blessed to meet other bloggers with the very same mission!

But there’s another side of blogging that has grown its own arms and legs and claws and fur and fangs! It’s the side that tells its users that they’ve got to compete, display the best show, get one more “follower”, and keep up with the Joneses. No, wait! Keeping up with the Joneses is no longer enough; you need to get ahead of the Joneses!

To be honest, I’ve never found the appeal to that game. Why would I want to chase after other people’s dreams? I have my own. And why would I want to try and duplicate the gifts, blessings, and attention God has brought into other people’s lives? He’s given me a gracious plenty! I don’t need the extra stuff, I don’t need the attention, I don’t need the praise, and I sure don’t need the glory that is really due to God. I mean, it is all His anyway, right?

I’m just enjoying the unique blessings and gifts God has given me in this world, and I’m happy for other women and the unique blessings and gifts God has given them. 

So, if I post a cake, it’s just because I like cakes, I love to bake, God has given me that skill, and I want to share it for the benefit of others who might enjoy them as well. If I post a table setting, it’s because I enjoy setting pretty tables, and it just comes quickly and easily for me to throw together what I have on hand. I also love photographs and captions! I worked on my yearbook staff through junior and senior high school and that was one of my favorite things about putting together a yearbook. So that’s why I snap and post lots of pictures. It’s fun for me.

What you won’t see are the gifts I clearly do NOT have! For starters, there’s very good a reason I’m not a fashion blogger, haha! I have to look to others for help on clothes and makeup. And this blog is not the most impressive when it comes to it’s technical format. I do not have a good techy mind, so my blog is lacking in that department, and I’m so okay with that. My last blog had way more bells and whistles which caused me frustration and drained the enjoyment out of the blogging experience for me. So, I might go all fancy with a cake, but I can’t make any sense out of a fancy blog theme! I sure do admire the women who can though! I delight in seeing the skills and talents other women possess that I just don’t have. My favorite blogs are those of women who are just doing their *thing* with the talents God has given them, and not trying to be anyone else.

One more part of this I’d like to address is how “real” I can be here. I know it’s sometimes hard for us to look at blogs and Instagram accounts while remembering that nobody is really perfect. In our home, there is dirty laundry, broken furniture, grumbling and bickering, and one very imperfect wife and mom!! I hope to be genuine in representing our home life. But at the same time, I owe my family the privacy and respect they deserve. This is my blog, after all, and not theirs. Their story is their story, not mine to share.

I’ve seen so many women publicly share personal struggles they are having with their children, husbands, extended family, friends, and coworkers. Even if someone is okay with exposing their own stuff, it’s not fair to expose others’. This is especially unfair for the children, and I often want to ask mothers how they would feel if their child posted such personal things about them on social media accounts, or even just went around talking about their parents the way their parents talk about them. Not only is it disrespectful to their child, but it can damage their reputation for future prospects and opportunities. Sure, we may need to get things off our chest, and we most definitely need to be genuine and not fake! But some topics are more suited for our prayer partners or a close and trusted friend, and not for the whole world to know. And therein lies the balance I strive to keep.

So if you see a clean picture of my living room like this….

…just look a little closer and you’ll see that my favorite chairs are torn! Yep, the first little holes started over the summer, and as hard as I tried to keep them protected with towels, they just kept ripping. We can’t NOT sit in them, after all. We still needed to sit somewhere!

A dear friend of mine said the sweetest thing to me and told me that it was because we’d had so many people in our home that they’ve just worn out quickly. Well, if that’s the reason, then I’m all for worn out chairs!! But my point is that we are very much “real” here, friends. Even on the days this room is its cleanest, those chairs are still torn and there’s nothing I can do about that until I can replace them. It just might not show at first glance, not because I’m trying to hide anything, but because this blog is just a glimpse of our home life. Some things you’re welcome to take a closer look at, as with my torn chairs, or the spray bottle on the mantle (did you catch that one?), or the big black space in my fireplace that is probably a big no-no for blog pics! But for the more private issues, you’ll just have to take my word for it that we’re not perfect and don’t try to project that at all. But out of respect for my family, this just isn’t the place airing all our issues.

Thank you for hanging in there with me on this long, rambling post! It’s just something that’s been on my heart since starting this blog this year. And as I’m finishing this, I’m remembering a post written by Denise at Refresh Her blog that is on this very topic and is illustrated perfectly! Click the link here for “A Blogger’s Confession”.  It’s excellent!

Have a lovely day, friends.