‘Tis the season…of comparison. If we let it be. Oh we don’t want to admit that, do we?

We want to pretend that everything is as perfect in our home and in our lives as it is on social media. We show everyone the perfectly lit pictures of our decorated tree. We post the smiles, doughy fingers, and angelically iced Christmas cookies. We take the color coordinated, family photos to mail out on our fancy Christmas cards. We scour Pinterest for the newest trend to wrap the gifts we spent twice our Christmas budget on in order to impress. Fa la la la la.

Don’t get my wrong. I love Christmas. And there’s nothing wrong with some of those things. So long as we aren’t tying our value to them or considering ourselves a failure if we don’t have and do all of the above.

What if you don’t have it all together?

Maybe you’re the parent who sent your kids to church in their pajamas only to find out Pajama Day is next Sunday. (Oh wait, that was me.)

Or maybe in an attempt to make the perfect holiday dessert, you added an extra stick of butter because little humans were running around the kitchen squealing and trying to help, so you mixed up the cookie recipe with the frosting recipe. (Also me…Although, really, can you go wrong with adding more butter to a dessert?)

Maybe your “perfect” holiday photos are a snapshot, but you still had to Photoshop the faces because no one was looking at the camera at the same time and someone was crying. (Me again. Spoiler: I don’t have it all together. No one does.) Or maybe you forgot to send out cards at all.

My point is, there are a billion and one things with which we could compare our shortcomings.

And when we don’t have the things we see everyone else having or posting, we allow ourselves to feel lonely, inferior, or out of control.

….Continue reading the full blog post HERE on the Styled By Ryn 2018 Advent series.