Authentic

This year, I’m using the Present Over Perfect Guided Journal. I read Shauna Neiquist’s Present Over Perfect book when it came out a few years ago and so much of it just connected with me. When I saw she had created a journal, I knew it was right for this season of my life. The journal has small excerpts from the book and prompts to help you think, reflect, and write. I’ll be sharing some of the prompts and my responses.

Prompt (pg. 143): What do you need to leave behind in order to recover that essential self that God created?

For awhile I tried to be the kind of mom that packed cute lunches and wrote all the notes and sent all the snacks and did PTA and had the cute holiday activities… It was just too much for me. It was outside my natural self and took too much energy and was exhausting.

I also tried to be some fashionista that I am not. Wearing clothes that weren’t me and didn’t fit my life. I tried to be in a league I’m not even comfortable in. Same with my home. Making it “cuter” than is practical for my life right now. And in the process I spent money better spent in other ways and lost time being my authentic self.

Today, I need to leave behind the image of me that is not actually me, the image of me that is a fantasy shaped by others/cultural lies. I an be who I am and still be adored. I can be who I am and be valued and accepted.