As I write this post I am nursing a zit the size of a nickel on my chin (it could quite possibly be a boil – it’s a toss up). It’s hideous, and I am vane enough to be grateful that I don’t have to leave my house today. Two weeks ago I was having a great hair week. The cowlicks in my bangs were behaving and the overall look was working for me. I was having good skin days too. I felt pretty (is that wrong…I really hope not). Then, wouldn’t you know it, puberty struck my thirty-six-year-old body – my hair has gone flat while my face has started breaking out. Hello world, I’ve digressed to my sixteen-year-old self. I have a zit and bad hair.
Reality strikes.
A couple of weeks ago I wrote about my feelings regarding speaking to our women’s Bible study. I was nervous, and really praying that God would enable me to share the word he had placed on my heart, but also do a good job in the delivery. Looking out on the faces of women as I was speaking, I couldn’t help but notice a nice, elderly woman in the fourth row back, whose eyes were closed. I don’t know if she was feeling considerably blessed by my message or if I had successfully lulled her to sleep by the sound of my voice. I’m going to go with the first option, simply because I can’t bear to think I put someone to sleep while I was talking. That would be downright embarrassing.
Once again…reality check.
Just when I start feeling a little too important, I often get confronted by criticism and “please don’t take this the wrong way” conversations. Some criticism is good, but not all of it is productive or appropriate. Still, I can appreciate it. It helps keep me from getting too big for my britches. I don’t want to be off-limits from the negative side of feedback, just like I don’t want to stop receiving the positive affirmations either.
I call these “head out of the clouds, feet on the ground” moments my reality checks. Sure, there are days when I’m not in a frame of mind to see the upside of the harsh remark or the blotchy skin – especially those days when I’m feeling particularly insecure about myself (and there are so many). I’m already face to face with reality, and I don’t need any more help getting there. But, because I am human, I also know my tendencies to go the opposite direction, and begin feeling a little too important. As soon as this starts happening, reality comes sweeping through my door and slaps me back down (like my children falling to pieces in the ballet studio parking lot, bodies going limp as I try to heave them up into the Expedition, right after I’ve announced to a couple of the other mommies that I’ve taken two Love and Logic classes and the techniques are working beautifully - sigh).
Good skin and hair are as temperamental as the weather, and my hormones. A good post, speaking well or just my overall life performance will have highs and lows. I’ll hit a homerun one week and strike out the next. The homeruns feel exhilarating. The strikes are my reality check. I’m grateful for both. I need both. Each serves a purpose in the growing and stretching of my life.
What about you? How do you handle reality checks? Do they destroy you or help you? Any good stories to share? It’s always comforting to hear from others who have experienced a good dose of reality, and how they’ve managed to get through it.
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
Funny, this kind of relates to my post yesterday in a roundabout way. I feel like hearing that Brett wasn’t getting promoted anytime soon was a reality check and it forces you to “put your money where your mouth is” in a sense and walk the talk of faith, ya know? You really do look like you have it all together and it is refreshing to a mama like me to know that you have your share of struggles and insecurities. The more real we get with each other, the more we can learn and be inspired by one another!
Hoping your week gets better and that your skin clears up, lol. I hate it when that happens too…I used to get frequent cold sores which are even worse then zits in my opinion since they are so terribly painful but I haven’t had one since having Emersyn (thank you pregnancy hormones!!!).
Amy, your reality checks have hit a home run this week! Thanks for keeping it candid, real and relate-able! I had to smile cuz I see myself all too well in your musings. Thanks for making me laugh and relax about it all – it’s easy to forget everyone has these moments and you described it so well. Thanks, my friend.
Amy! You are so real… and it is painful, isn’t it? But I love it… and I love you! The thing is that we will have reality checks throughout our lives… our response is so important.
Okay, so you know how I had over like a thousand hits that one day I was on Beth Moore’s blog via McLinky? And I was like… finally, people are reading my blog? Well, it has leveled back out… and here I am again. Which is good because I was reading something the other day that said if you get too “big”… then you have to keep consistent… which means it is harder to be authentic! And I so want to be authentic… others can have the “big”… I just want to be real.