This past Sunday, I taught a lesson about go into the world and preach the gospel. So I thought it would be fun to show my mission pictures. But the pictures can be so deceiving. I never took a picture of the many Books of Mormon left on the doorstep, or people in tears because someone had hurt their feelings, or the mean mission leaders that did not want your investigators to be baptized (true story!), or the inside of my head when I was trying to learn Dutch while I had companions speaking Norwegian all day long. (I thought my head looked like the Tower of Babel!) I took pictures of our days off: looking around the beautiful cities of Belgium with smiles on our faces. As I had my class look through the photo albums, I told them that the pictures show a very distorted view of mission life.
So when I look through my blog--I am sure it is the same. It's like I'm showing the Garden of Eden on my blog, but in actuality I'm living on the earth just like everyone else where life has its ups and downs. This summer is filled both its ups which I have pictures to show for it, and its downs--sorry no pictures, but maybe I will try!
But one reason I like to blog about the good things, so I can look back on the time and remember the good--because I will always remember how hard it was!
I applaud the bloggers that share their hard times, and do so in a non-complaining fashion. I am certain I would come across as complaining. So today, we are off to the beach, and I am sure I will post lots of great pictures! Just know that those beach days made my summer! Otherwise it would have just been filled with school, school, and more school.
4 comments:
I used to get kind of down on myself when I would read other people's blogs. Their lives looked so clean and neat, so picture perfect, etc. that it made me feel sometimes as though my life were a shambles. I came to realize though, that it's all in what we put out there. Everyone has problems, everyone's ovens get dirty, everyone's house has probably got bird poop on it, and on and on. And then I felt better about myself.
I know, it can be hard to post about the trials and disappointments in life, and I don't know why that is. We all have trials and we're in this life to help each other, so why not put it out there? I know when I posted something my family was dealing with, I found a whole group of other people that had been through the same thing. The support was amazing. But I still don't put everything on my blog.
Have fun. We all learn from each other don't we. It is amazing how much so many go through so much and go through it so well.
Jan--you often share your troubles--and yet you still give!
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