This is the Life!

Life is Good!

Just after celebrating our first wedding anniversary, I posted a picture my family on Facebook. We were spending the afternoon at the park. The sun was shining brightly in the background and we all had big beautiful smiles on our faces. Our daughter was sitting in my lap looking at the camera with the sweetest little irresistible face. The caption read, “Life is good!”

Well, I must say that after over 8 years of being married, life is certainly good. It’s actually pretty amazing. However, this is not for the reasons most people see on that photo. It’s not because we’ve achieved the so-called “American dream”. We have a wonderful marriage full of love. Our two daughters are beautifully unique and equally amazing. We even reside in a lovely suburban neighborhood in a nicely decorated home. All of these are definitely good things, but they’re not everything.

My Real Life in Real-Time

The picture that I posted on Facebook was actually over a week old at the time it was posted. Therefore, it didn’t give a true depiction of what life was like at the actual time of the post. This is also true today. Not only for my family but for others in general. Social media doesn’t usually convey a true picture of what most people are experiencing in their real lives in real-time.

At the time I made that particular post my entire family was at home fighting sickness. I’m sure most parents can relate. You know to what it’s like to take care of a sick infant while you are also sick. Now add all of that together and you have the perfect recipe for complete dismay and total disaster. So needless to say, the sun was not shining down so brightly on us at the time of the post. However, life was good and still is in spite of all of that.

Life is Good, Indeed!

As a matter of fact, life is good in spite of all this. Despite all of the Illness, ailments, and other random occurrences that my entire family has faced since its inception over 8 years ago, life is still good. I don’t believe I could begin to accurately depict all of the things we’ve been through. If I were to make a list of my experiences alone, you probably wouldn’t believe all of this could happen to one person in a lifetime. The list would be much longer if I were to include the experiences of my husband and young children. The point is not to highlight how much we’ve been through. Instead it is to exclaim that we’ve survived. We choose instead to share our story as a testimony. We want to show all of the good that has come from these many trials.

Now fast forward to the present day when my family took our most recent set of family photos. You would never know that I nearly had a full-blown anxiety attack the night before this photo shoot. Why you may ask? I put a great deal of effort into ensuring that our family looked perfect. The final product was certainly beautiful and perfect in its own way. But it wasn’t really worth if it came at the expense of my mental health.

God’s Presence in My Present

So as I’m writing this post, I’m reflecting on a sentence from a devotional I often use. I can read this same devotional a million times and it never gets old. The sentence from Jesus Calling simply reads, “When My Presence is the focal point of your consciousness, all the pieces of your life fall into place.”

Although life on social media is not always what it appears to be, life can be good indeed if we strive to “keep the main thing the main thing.” By focusing on Christ and putting Him first we will always have a reason to be grateful and give thanks. This is so even through the difficult and not-so-photographic moments. That’s why today and always I’m able to truthfully proclaim that “This is the life”! For that I am and will always be eternally grateful.

– Alex