Don't live your life with Instagram expectations

Here we are, two weeks into a new year! With the new year brings excitement for new adventures and a lot more pictures to add to my Instagram. I love Instagram because I love looking back at my photos and reminiscing about all the adventures I have been on and all the people I got to spend with. I also love it because it's a like an online photo album. I used to be really into scrapbooking but one scrapbook would take me 20+ hours on a 20 page book! Nobody got time for that. 

Another reason I love Instagram because I am able to stay connected with my family and friends around the world. It's like I am still part of their life even though I am not with them. I also like following travel grams. This is one of the biggest reasons, I have traveled to so many cool places. When I see a post on Instagram I put it on my bucket list and find a way to make it happen. 

The other day, I was talking to a friend about the crazy things I do to take an Instagram photo. One example is my adventure to Boardman Tree Farm. My best friend and I saw posts on Instagram of this really cool looking tree farm so we decided we would go check it out and took a 3 hour road trip just to take photos. Looking at the Instagram photos, what we thought the place was going to look like and what we actually saw were completely different... 

EXPECTATION

REALITY

EXPECTATION

REALITY

Granted, we probably did not go to the farm at the right time. Where were all the leaves? And yes, we may not be professional photographers but still Instagram can be so deceiving... and so can our lives. We choose what to post and what to hide. What people see on Instagram and what people see in real life are completely different. And I will be the first to admit that this is me at times just like everyone else. My expectation for my life can be filtered through how other people live their lives. I can easily compare my life to others and wish that I had/did _____ in my life and I can just as easily expect my life to be Instagram worthy and fill my time with another adventure every week. But the reality of it all is that life cannot always live up to Instagram standards. We put too much expectation on how our lives should be that we tend to forget to live and enjoy in the journey. Was traveling 3 hours to go and take photos for an Instagram post just to find that it was not really what we expected a little crazy? Probably, but did I get to go on a journey with my best friend and explore a new place and gain a fun story to add to my adventures of Just Justine? Absolutely! Life is about the journey and about the people you get to go on that journey with. 

Life is also about what we focus on. Another time, on one of my best friend and I's adventures, we went to take pictures in a flower field at Rowena Crest. When we got there we only could find patches of flowers, either all the flowers were dead or we were told wrong. Just our luck! But we did not get all dressed up and drive all the way there to not take photos so, we made it work. While we were taking the photos, I made a comment about how no one will ever know that this actually isn't a flower field because it's Instagram and we can adjust the focus of the picture.

Posing in a "field of flowers"

Truth: It's just patches of flowers

You guys! Life is what we focus on. So easily we can focus on the "patches of flowers" in our life and not actually realize that we are living in a "flower field". We need to turn our focus on the one that can actually turn our "patches" into "fields" and that is God! 

2 Corinthians 4:18The Message (MSG)

16-18 So we’re not giving up. How could we! Even though on the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside, where God is making new life, not a day goes by without his unfolding grace. These hard times are small potatoes compared to the coming good times, the lavish celebration prepared for us. There’s far more here than meets the eye. The things we see now are here today, gone tomorrow. But the things we can’t see now will last forever.

I am continually being reminded by God that I need to focus on Him and His plans for my life. Even in these past few days, He has been speaking to me about enjoying the now and the things/opportunities/people that are in my life now and not about what/who I don't have in my life right now. Everything and everyone in my life has been placed there for a reason and I want to embrace that in this new year. I want to live in the now and put my energy and time into the areas and people that are important to me. I want my focus to be on God first and people second. I want to live my life not with Instagram expectations but by enjoying the journey.

God has called us all on our own journey and however your journey may look like, may you enjoy the journey you have and focus on the "fields" and not your "patches".