This is actually not a very well written post. Posting it anyway.

Oh parenting.  

I'm not sure that social media has helped you very much.  Everything comes and goes in waves of trends.  The tide comes in, the tide goes out, and we are carried off and tossed about on the rocks of public appearances, unless we can stand back far enough away on the shore and say "HO there, tiger.  That's just, that's just no." 

     I used to have a job selling clothes as a personal stylist. I would create whole outfits for people, and everyone was different.  But what I would tell them most of all was, "Wear what makes you happy."  People are difficult and complex, but clothing shouldn't be.  

      I just heard a sermon this morning as I was driving and the pastor was saying, "Back in biblical times, when someone was grieving, they used to actually tear their clothes and put ashes on themselves.  This was a sign to everyone around them saying 'I'm grieving.  don't expect too much from me right now.  Pray for me.'"  I think our outfit choices still reflect what's going on inside the person.  

     Parenting also follows trends.  One of the current trends is to write an "Open Letter" about a current method of parenting that is the way we all should now approach it/look at it/do it.  And then this gets passed around from page to page to page on Facebook and shared and liked and reposted until the next Open Letter.  I prefer the old school days of Facebook, when we all went on to add plants to our little garden, or get someone to send us cupcakes or buttons to add to our Facebook wall.  There were all these quizzes going around and we'd tag our friends to get them to answer the quiz questions all about ourselves. Then it got all serious and refined and "Open Letter"-y.  

    I say CLOSE THAT LETTER BACK UP!  

     What if God made you to be the person you are, with your personal personality hacks, your personal finances,  or lack thereof, goals, or lack thereof, your personal character qualities, or, let's face it, lack thereof, and what if God gave you these strengths and weaknesses and then deliberately gave you these particular children?  To compliment or completely rub raw all of that stuff about you?  To either teach them to grow through the cracks of all of your hard edges and personal damage or to flourish in spite of the fact that you have provided a sidewalk instead of a lawn, an ocean instead of a fresh water stream, a jungle instead of a city?  

I mean, what if GOD was intentional about making you just the way you are, making your child just the way s/he is, and putting that combination together?

     Go wherever you want with this logic.  

     I'm just "train of thought-" ing right now.

Cause I just don't think we all need to hear everyone else's opinion about every single thing, and I think we've lost the ability to see when it's valid to give our input and when it's not our place.  I think we can all get paranoid thinking that the whole world is watching and judging our choices and we don't want to be judged.

Throw all that away.  

Just do it the way that works for you.

Seek wisdom from those in your inner circle who have already earned your trust.

Not everyone will understand or like you and you don't owe them an explanation.

Some people will judge anyway.

Just know that.

And have a 

Happy Clothes wearing, 

Child rearing,

Person being, 

kind of day.