Put On A Happy Face

I’m really good at putting on a happy face when I need to, pretending everything is perfect. Honestly, we’re probably all pretty adept at wearing masks.

Social media doesn’t help, either. We scroll through Facebook and Instagram, perusing everyone’s highlight reels, while we stand in our dirty kitchens wearing the same pair of yoga pants for the third day in a row as we listen to our kids bickering over wii remotes and legos.

Suddenly, our life doesn’t look so “blessed” anymore.

Take this picture, for instance.  Right before this photo was taken, and I mean seconds before, one of these precious little ones was yelling and screaming at the other for some offense that was committed. (I can’t imagine where this child learned that behavior…) But by looking at this photograph, you would never know the backstory.

Things may look sweet and perfect on the outside but you might be surprised at what’s been going on right before the photo is snapped.

Let’s be honest: sometimes life is hard and you feel like you’re drowning.

• Maybe your marriage seems hopeless and you feel like you have nothing left to give.
• Maybe your child has just been diagnosed with a fatal disease and you are at the end of your rope, barely hanging on.
• Maybe you just lost your job and you don’t know how you’ll make ends meet enough to feed your family.
• Perhaps you’ve patiently waited on God to come through for you but it seems as if He has forgotten all about your hopes and dreams.

At this moment I have friends who are dealing with a life threatening illness for their 3-year old daughter. I have another friend whose husband has been diagnosed with a devastating brain tumor. I know a couple who is on the brink of divorce and another couple who has walked the road of infertility for years and years.

Life is hard, y’all. Just because we love Jesus doesn’t mean we are guaranteed an easy road.

Recently I was reminded that Moses walked through years of wilderness. The man who saw God face to face, the man whom God entrusted with His people – he never even got to enter the promised land. He could see it… almost touch it… yet he wasn’t allowed to stand on the soil he had so longed for. However, even though he wandered in the desert for years and years, he still witnessed God’s faithfulness through it all.

I don’t know about you, but I want my seasons of wilderness to be short. If I can see the end in sight, I am more likely to trust God with my wanderings. But this isn’t what the Lord calls us to. He calls us to trust Him even if we can’t see the end. Even if we never enter our “promised land.”

Friend, are you in a season of wilderness? What are you yearning for today? As you journey through your own desert, I encourage you to remember God’s faithfulness along your journey.

Today, I am going to leave you with words from one of my favorite hymns. I hope it will be a reminder to you that our Heavenly Father is with you, wherever you are wandering.

Great is Thy faithfulness! Great is Thy faithfulness!

Morning by morning new mercies I see;

All I have needed Thy hand hath provided –

Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me.