Motherhood: Expectation vs. Reality

While scrolling mindlessly through Facebook this afternoon I came across a share from a friend.  It was a link to some “fails” where parents tried to recreate those cute, magazine worthy photos of their kids.  You know, the kind with the baby tucked sweetly into a watermelon all cute and cozy.  Only life got in the way and their pictures reflected the fact that babies don’t actually enjoy laying naked inside a scooped out watermelon.  Who’d have thought?  The heading was Expectation vs. Reality.  As I stared at the words, I realized this heading could apply to so much more than failed parental experiments.  For me, it really could apply to life across the board. 

See, I’ve arrived at a conclusion that has taken me years to absorb and accept.  In this season of life, I’ve realized that my expectations are many times not my reality, and that’s OK.  It’s not that I’ve given up or shut myself down.  It’s not that I don’t still dream or indulge sometimes.  It’s simply that in this season of life my expectations sometimes have to die so that I can ENJOY my reality. 

I’m not saying that my expectations are bad.  In fact, I don’t think hope and expectation are very far apart and without hope I think my heart would die.  I have just come to realize, that in my season of motherhood, my expectations are unrealistic, and those unmet, unrealistic expectations were stealing my joy.  I don’t want to live that way. 

My house is not going to look like a magazine.  My last minute, on a whim adventures aren’t going to fly with a 4-year-old who hates transition.  My body is not going be bikini ready for the summer (or maybe ever).  So I’m letting go of many of my unrealistic expectations and taking life as it comes – raw and outside my pretty, gift wrapped box. 

Someday maybe life will shift and I’ll indulge in more of my crazy expectations.  Someday maybe I’ll shift and more of my crazy expectations will fade away.  Personally I think I’m hoping for the latter.  Either way, this is a very short season in light of eternity and I want to enjoy it. 

So, if you stop in at my house on a whim and you have to wade through remnants of my kids latest creative project just to get in the door, please know I’m working on enjoying life.  It’s going to be a process, but I’ll get there.  It just may be my craziest adventure yet.