I am not perfect. Nobody is!  I think human perfection is an illusion, and it certainly is tough to live up to some pretend standard online.  And for what?

Just the other day I was at a bowling birthday party where there was a little girl there who was CLEARLY not enjoying the bowling.  In fact, the little girl screamed and contorted her body – furious because she had rolled her bowling ball directly into the gutter.  Later, another little boy had a tantrum when he too, threw a gutter ball.

As I watched, I thought the highlight of the day might have been that none of the kids dropped a ball on their foot. But later that night, two of the moms posted a couple of staged pictures, along with a vivid description of the “great time” everyone had at the bowling birthday party.

Of-course no one posted a video of the temper tantrum. No one posted the high score of 83 or a picture of most parents who sat in the back – all on their cell phones, mostly oblivious to each other, just waiting for the outing to end.

After I saw the “great-time” post, I thought about how we hide so much of the truth on social media. Like the truth that you and I both roll gutter balls, make mistakes and have problems. The truth that we fall short, get impatient, have bad habits, worry and are afraid. Of course, we don’t want to expose our dirty underwear – especially online. After all, people might suspect that we are normal, vulnerable and most certainly not perfect.

So today, I’d like to encourage all of us to be real – at least with our heavenly Father. Let’s talk to him throughout the day and be totally honest with him. Let’s not pretend. Let’s tell him when we are tired and ask him for strength.  Let’s tell him when we are afraid and need courage.

He knows when we throw gutter balls and sometimes feel like a failure. He knows. And the best part is that he’s with us – especially when we stop pretending.

My friends, Satan is out to deceive us by trying to make us impossibly strive for perfection, or by making us feel inadequate.  “I am not perfect, but I’m going to pretend I am” is one of the enemy’s old tricks, but with a new in-your-face twist called social media.

That’s why we’d like to bless you with the FREE audiobook or PDF of “Why Wait To Be Happy.”  It’s an awesome book where you’ll discover God’s solutions for defeating Satan’s lies.  Jesus paid a big price for you to live an abundant life, and wants you to get what he paid for.