The little girl screamed and contorted her body – furious because she had rolled her bowling ball directly – and I mean directly – into the gutter.

Personally, with all the gutter balls and my gut-ache from the food, I think the highlight of the day may 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 not pretend.  Let’s tell him when we are tired and ask him for strength.  He knows when we are afraid and need courage. He knows when we throw gutter balls and feel like a failure.  He knows.  

And the best part is that he’s with us – especially when we stop pretending.  He likes it when we stop our striving, rest and know that he is Lord.  After all, He knows.  

Maybe we could do the world of social media some good by sharing these thoughts.  It’s tough to live up to some pretend standard online.  For today – let’s be real with God and each other.  After all, God does know the truth.