Fake Energy, Broken Smiles

Hey friends. Today, I am actually just really grateful. It's one of those days where I am just in awe of how good life really is and how much I take for granted every single day.

Here are some things I am taking for granted in my life right now, some big and some small:

1. The fact that my mom does hair and nails for a living. How cool is it that I have my own personal hair stylist and nail tech?! I do not realize this enough. Sounds silly, I know.
   

2. My room. I love my room. It's where I have spent the past five years doing my makeup, crying over my homework, winning state and national championships (I believe you win those in the preparation BEFORE contest day lol), recording podcasts, & making tik toks with my sister and cousins. So many cool memories. My room is about to look a lot different though. Soon, a few key things will be missing, including me. As much as I am excited about my dorm room, I know I will miss being in my bedroom in the comfort of my own home. I haven't appreciated it enough.
   

3. How far I have come. Some of these summer days have been long and challenging & I tend to forget the reality of the season of life I am in. It's so crazy to me that I have already completed high school in its entirety and am about to start college. Like what the heck?!?! My long-awaited dreams have finally come true, so I'm trying not waste this season!!!
   

4. God's INFINITE blessings. I believe that everything in life is a blessing from God, and I pride myself on being able to see beauty in the little things. God has blessed me with a healthy family, two parents that love me unconditionally, a sister who doubles as my best friend and accountability partner, a creative mind, and so much more. Like, God is just so so good- when things go our way and even when they don’t. I love this graphic ...

I challenge you to take a good look at your life and find out what you're taking for granted. That's a good question to ask yourself every. single. day. because I promise you'll find something.

I saw this quote today about growth that I love !!!

That was just something that was on my heart, so I wanted to share! Anyways, onto today's topic....

I don't know about y'all, but I love caffeine.... it's basically an addiction, seeing as that I can't go a day without it. Well I could, but I would get headaches and be very irritable.

BTW this is the best coffee I've ever had. It's the mocha coffee from the Magnolia Table in Waco 😍

But you see, I look at caffeine as fake energy. Most of us love it so much because we are busy humans and can’t seem to have enough energy to do everything we want in life. Even if we have the best of intentions, life happens & our sleep schedule is bound to be far from ideal at times. But yet, life’s demands don’t stop. We still have things to do that require energy & the 4pm slump is realllll. So what do we do? Most of us rely on coffee, tea, & energy drinks to carry us through the rest of our days. We don’t have enough energy within ourselves, so we must compensate. It’s not necessarily a bad thing. It’s just a fact of life.

In the same way, many of us don’t have enough happiness within us, so we search for things to fulfill us. Deep down, we all experience some sort of brokenness. The specifics of this brokenness may vary, but I'm sure it's there. To cope with loneliness, we seek out friends. To cope with body insecurity, we diet & exercise. To cope with boredom, we are constantly on the search for entertainment. etc. etc. etc. 💔

I was reading a chapter of a book by author Grace Valentine this week that talked about this. I made sure to highlight it in pink because it was THAT GOOD lol 😉

My point is, much of what we do in life is a coverup. We cover up fatigue with caffeine & we cover brokenness by finding shallow things to fill the many voids we feel.

In society today, I’ve figured out that you have to tell people you’re "good to go" even if you’re tired & tell people you're "doing great" even if you’re feeling broken.

It just has to happen to avoid people spending all of life wallowing in a pity party.

But there’s one person we can be completely honest with. Jesus.

I like to think that Jesus is a realist. If you're not sure what that is, here's a definition.

REALIST: a person who accepts a situation as it is and is prepared to deal with it accordingly

He’s like the friend who, when you say you’re fine, stops & insists you explain how you really are. But instead of giving Him a slightly more in-depth but still not totally honest version of your feelings (like you would probably give your friend), you're free to tell it how it is. Spill the tea, if you will. ☕

We can tell Him how tired we are & how broken we feel. On the flip side, we can also tell Him how incredibly grateful we are & how blessed we feel despite everything we are going through. Both of these realities are important to share with God & both feelings can actually coexist in the same moment. No coverups necessary when it comes to talking with God. He sees right through your fake energy and broken smile, and He wants to give relief to your fatigue & tears.

He wants it all.

Just a cool reminder I think we all need!

Thank you for reading. I really appreciate you💞

- bailee nicole !!!