A Gift for Mom! 🤍

I love Pinterest.

Pinterest is a magical place where DIY projects, recipes, advice, and life hacks are just a click away.So many unique and helpful ideas come from Pinterest for every type of person.

There are countless amazing things about Pinterest—but I’ve found one negative: if you aren’t careful, Pinterest can make you really discontent with your life. You can easily start comparing everything about your life to the many pins you’ve saved.

Suddenly, you’re a bad mom because you don’t have craft day every week with paper plates, colored rice, or paint. You feel like other moms are judging you because your kids go to school without animal-shaped sandwiches and smiley face fruit in a Bento Box. If your kiddos are at home, you feel like they are so behind because you don’t have a week dedicated to the letter “B” and you don’t have a color coded enrichment schedule for them. 

Then you can start to see your house as bland and plain without farmhouse decor or neat DIY space-saving storage. You quickly become so disenchanted with your home because you don’t have the perfect outdoor entertaining space or your bedroom doesn’t have a homemade tufted pallet headboard. Nothing looks right, everything looks dingy because it doesn’t look like your “Dream Home” board.

Next your marriage takes a hit. You are suddenly a failure as a wife because you don’t have a weekly cleaning schedule, homemade cleaning products, or an iron-clad evening routine. And cooking? Forget about feeling like a good cook if you don’t have a chalkboard meal plan full of homemade, organic ingredients that your children eat with no complaints. You’re obviously a terrible wife if essential oils and hand-lettered signs aren’t in every single room of your home.

Even your wedding now seems less than; your centerpieces were definitely not vintage enough and there were absolutely not enough mason jars. Why were there no mason jars?!

Also, as a friend, you definitely feel like you’re terrible. I mean when was the last time you threw a fully themed dinner party for your friends or made them a super cute care package just because? They probably secretly hate you because you don’t do any of the things they have on THEIR Pinterest boards.

Don’t forget Jesus. Oh man, Jesus is also definitely disappointed that your quiet time is not Pinterest perfect every single day. You are supposed to sit on a padded window seat in the sun with hot coffee and the dog curled up at your feet. Then you should proceed to pray for 15 minutes, do a Bible Study or devotional for 30 minutes, write from you monthly Scripture plan, and finally, pray again. If your quiet time doesn’t look like this, you feel like you shouldn’t even bother. (By the way, I feel like I should interject here that this is SO NOT TRUE.)

Do you see what I’m getting at?

Pinterest is a great thing, really, so many useful ideas and things you just don’t have time to create yourself ready right there to click on. I am not saying we should all swear off Pinterest; we just need to be careful about how much time we spend comparing our lives to the picture perfect pins we scroll through. Can you get some inspiration, or “Pinspiration” from the many, many, boards? Absolutely! Just don’t let yourself ever feel less than because your life doesn’t look like what others choose to post on a website.

So God Made a Grandmother book by Leslie Means

If you liked this, you'll love our book, SO GOD MADE A GRANDMA

Order Now!

Shelby Skiles

Shelby Skiles is a wife, teacher, and mom to her two-year-old angel, Sophie. Sophie passed away in January 2018 from Lymphoma. Shelby chronicled Sophie’s entire battle through her blog Sophie The Brave and hopes that transparently sharing her journey through, motherhood, cancer, and now grief will inspire others to look passed their circumstances and see that God is bigger than all of it. She’s deeply committed to honoring Sophie’s memory by sharing her story and I spring others to ‘Do More’ and make a difference. 

These Simple Summers Will Live In My Heart Forever

In: Living
Kids playing in water in yard

There’s something I love about summers with the kids, more than any other time of the year. It’s not my favorite season, not even close. But I will always look back on the summers spent with our kids as some of the most beautiful, joyful, yet simple memories of our life together. And that’s just it—it’s the simplicity of summer that makes it so magical. It’s the weightlessness of “nowhere to be,” and the way the kids settle into a routine that’s not a routine at all. I love watching them run through the yard, popsicle in hand, red strawberry...

Keep Reading

We’re Trusting God through Unemployment

In: Living
Family posing by wooden wall

The calendar tells me that almost three months ago today, my husband and I resigned from our joint position as house parents in a residential foster care ministry. Three months of no income. Three months of moving to a new state, navigating new doctors, two brand new schools for our daughters, and a smaller living space. Three months of looking at each other and knowing how hard it is to wait for a paycheck. One day, I dared to check the bank account, and my body quivered when I saw the balance. We had savings, but I am pretty sure...

Keep Reading

Some Friendships Are Not Meant To Last Forever

In: Friendship
Landscape photo

I remember hearing as a child that not all friendships last forever. Back then, I didn’t believe it. Not my friendships. We had grown up together—through elementary school, through high school. We were inseparable. Plans were made around each other, and life felt like it would always look that way. But life has a way of changing things. I became a young mom, trying to figure out who I was while also learning how to be everything my children needed. At the same time, I was still holding tightly to the friendships that had been part of my life for...

Keep Reading

My Sister-In-Law Is the Sister I Always Wanted

In: Living
Two women friends smiling

There’s a very specific kind of longing that sometimes comes with growing up without a sister. Yes, I had half-siblings on my dad’s side, but they were older and out there living their adult lives. My brother and I were always very close despite the age difference. He was the cool, funny, rockstar big brother who was (and always will be) a big kid at heart, and I was incredibly grateful for that. But still, there was always this quiet, persistent longing for something else: a sister. Someone who would be mine in that way only sisters understand. You know,...

Keep Reading

The Life I Love Was Built From the Life That Broke Me

In: Living, Marriage
Family of four

In my early- to mid-twenties, everything felt like it was unraveling. I was depressed, uninspired, dealing with health issues I didn’t fully understand, and carrying the weight of past trauma I didn’t yet have the language for. At the same time, I was wading through a dating pool that felt more like I was unintentionally starring in an episode of Punk’d, all while still carrying the scars of a serious relationship that ended in betrayal—cheating that didn’t just break my heart, but shattered my sense of trust in a way I wasn’t prepared for. For a while, I stayed there....

Keep Reading

My Mom Was Just 13 When I Was Born. Now That I’m a Mother, I See Her Differently.

In: Living
Young girl and teenage mother

There are only 13 years and 11 months between us. I can’t imagine how hard that must have been—how lonely it must have felt at times. A childhood cut short, replaced with responsibilities that were night and day. Confusion and love, all wrapped into one. Growing up, it felt like I had a big sister beside me. A friend I loved with everything in me. But she wasn’t just a friend. She was my mother. I relied on her for guidance, for reassurance, for someone to look up to. And now I find myself wondering, how could she give me...

Keep Reading

Why Don’t We Talk About Jonah’s Mother?

In: Faith, Living, Motherhood
Woman standing over water

Praying for My Son Send a storm to stop him; Let his friends throw him out. May he drop to the deeps, But gently, please, Stubborn though he may be. If it could only take three days, How my mother’s heart would Rejoice in praise.  From the hell you allow him, Let him cry to you. Is not Nineveh and mercy Exactly what he knows He needs— A mercy on enemies He fears You will concede? Please let all the shade wither If his is an angry soul; Humble him and help him follow Where you would have his purpose...

Keep Reading

I Never Got to Meet My Grandmother on This Side of Heaven

In: Living
Old black and white family photo

Grandmother, I never met you this side of Heaven, but I feel as though I have. Your pictures, scattered throughout my mother’s home, tell your story. Born to a woman who came to this country alone when she was just 16, you would be the youngest of four, with two sisters and a brother. Your short, dark, straight hair clings to your little face, a line of bangs neatly combed high on your forehead. You couldn’t be more than three years old as you sit on a stool at your sister’s First Holy Communion. The black and white photo makes...

Keep Reading

The Hardest Part of Divorce Is Being Away from My Kids

In: Living, Marriage, Motherhood
Woman in driver's seat

I’ve written several times about how divorce has allowed me to find myself again, and how that version is even better than the one I was before I was married. All of that is still true. I am happier than I’ve ever been. More confident and sure of myself. I understand my emotions and how to handle myself when things get tough or scary. I am more grounded and calm than I’ve ever been. Truly, I have come out on top. I’ve received comments about how happy I look, how I’m “living my best life with kids only half the...

Keep Reading

My Dad Gave Us Something Money Never Could

In: Living
Family smiling in posed photo

I was talking with my dad the other day about an upcoming Disney trip with our kids. I told him all we planned to do while we were there and how excited the kids were. He sat and listened, taking it all in. And then he said something that put a lump in my throat. “I’m so glad you’re able to give your kids the life that I couldn’t.” He went on to say he still carries some guilt–that he wishes he could have done more, taken us on trips, given us experiences he couldn’t. Hearing that broke my heart....

Keep Reading