We were made to cultivate beauty.

Here’s the truth about this world of social media.

It can be like a whole different world from the one you are living in.

You can scroll through picture-perfect content, designer-looking homes, and homeschool days that are full of whimsical charm.

It can all feel like something foreign. You can even airbrush up your own existence to try and make it all fit. You can do your best to create images that won’t feel out of place with the rest of this world.

You’ll burn out.

You’ll feel like a fake.

And worst of all, you’ll hide away from in-person relationships in fear of being found a fraud.

Wait, your house isn’t a magical place of inspiration and creativity? You mean you don’t sit and have afternoon tea with the toddler each day? You’re not leisurely enjoying a midday stroll like your Instagram routine would lead us to believe?

So here we sit, with front doors closed but a life online that is thriving and well.

We edit, and we snap the photo just right to hide the laundry baskets. (unless they are wicker perhaps?) We make believe we are living in some sort of fairyland while feeling more and more distant from our community because the more we share the more we have to live up to.

And so we build our walls. But they’re made of charm and beauty. They’re made of baskets of flowers and dinner tables with candlesticks. They are made of beautiful music and loaves of sourdough with the butter melting just right.

I have felt this tension. I have wrestled with it, and I have allowed it to lead me to both quit the game and I have allowed it to sweep me along for the wild ride.

But today I pose a different perspective.

In this space, you can connect with others. Surely this can be used for good?

This is the question I constantly ponder. My conclusion (for now) - carefully and with great wisdom, I feel it is true.

There is good here. But it is found on a different path than the one we are prone to following.

As posts with enchanting music come before your eyes, you might feel the same stirring —to live a life of beauty.

Friend, you were intentionally created with this longing. A desire for beauty was placed within you as a reflection of the nature of your Creator. It’s why you find yourself drawn to laundry lines on a beautiful hillside, flower arrangements that could make you cry, and the cover of a book that is so creatively designed.

So what if we let it all lead us to greater inspiration and greater creativity?

What if we allowed this world where we can create our own worlds —what if we let it be an inspiration to create more in our own real world?

If we find ourselves pulled to the idea of afternoon tea outside from a friend's post, instead of allowing the weight of comparison to drag us down, we leave a comment, “Great idea - tea it is! Care to join us tomorrow?”

What if the music that pulls us in that video shared becomes our morning playlist to create a home of wonder and beauty for our children as they sit for breakfast?

What if we pulled from this space as a source of inspiration to create a life that is overflowing with beauty and charm?

What if instead of a weight (or perhaps an eye-roll) we let the beauty that others share inspire us to cultivate our own beautiful world?

Our lives are surely going to face hardship and imperfections, life simply cannot and will not be picture-perfect - no matter the amount of editing. But what if the ways that we have cultivated and incorporated beauty into our homes became a beacon of hope to the lost and the broken, a restful rhythm to the family that dwells within your walls, a place of refuge and refreshment?

What if Instagram taught us that we love beautiful things and we allowed it to serve as an invitation to pull beauty into our homes, our routines, and our habits?