Jennifer Stroman

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Wisteria Lane

All Beautiful Things Have Flaws

On the way to drop my daughter at school each morning, we drive down a street that is the Wisteria Lane of this country town. The houses are beautiful and clean, the yards are all perfectly manicured and the trees along both sides of the street provide shade down the entire path. During the holidays, the houses are all decorated. It’s not unusual to see a child walking to school, someone taking a morning jog or someone walking their dog. It’s a quiet, beautiful street.

This morning as we turned to enter this street, water covered the road. It had rained all night and continued this morning which created flooding throughout the city. I took a different path, avoiding the flooded street and circled back to it for the remaining ride to school.  As we drove, my daughter and I talked about the rain, flooding and how the cars along the curb were sitting in pretty high water.  We sat in silence for a few minutes and then she said “I guess all beautiful things have flaws.”  I lit up and agreed! What a life lesson to learn and what an amazing analogy! Our Wisteria Lane was covered in water, not perfect anymore.

This made me think. Nothing is perfect, except Jesus. So why do we look at others as if they are perfection? We cut ourselves down, compare our street to the Wisteria Lane and don’t stop to acknowledge the flaws. The beautiful or put together Instagram profile is not the true human. She or he puts out the highlights of their life, edited to perfection. The way society views others is through a filtered, edited and photoshopped lens. 

We should celebrate the real humans. The vulnerable ones. Those willing to share their true selves with us. We shouldn’t look at others with envy. Their Wisteria Lane floods, y’all! It floods!! It is NOT perfect! Stop comparing yourself to others. You are imperfectly perfect and even with your flaws, you are beautiful! 

You are Beautiful for “You are fearfully and wonderfully made...” Psalm 139:14

   

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