The Back of the Barn

We have a beautiful red barn in our backyard. It's fun and made for a great place to hang our Christmas wreath. It made everyone on Instagram swoon.

But there are some things you don't know about the red barn. It's full. Like super full. Half of it is from previous owners. The other half is our stuff from our garage in Georgia. We hurried to cram it in there before the snow came when we moved in. This spring we have a giant project awaiting our attention. Sorting through our own stuff and the stuff of who-only-knows how many other people. And at first glance, I am not anticipating any hidden treasures. (But here's to hoping....)

And then there is the back. Or lack there of.

Here you see the missing back of the barn. And the beginnings of an inherited hoard. It's not the end of the world and will provide lots of entertainment and muscle building opportunities come the warm weather.

But.

It represents the rest of the story. Now, it's just a barn. But it makes me think of so many IG and FB posts that show the highlights. The fun and pretty parts. And everyone subconsciously sees those snapshots and thinks everything is as great as that one image. The back of this barn represents the hard times. The less than perfect moments that we don't blast all over social media. It's universal and I have to remind myself of that when I have a hard day and see someone else's super-awesome-day and my heart turns a light shade of green.

Here are the fun January highlights that were proudly posted. The ice palace, a family hike and playing in the snow Elsa sent us.

And those were sweet moments that made my heart smile and I shared for our friends and family to follow along our Adirondack adventure. But our hearts had a lot of sad moments as we knew our precious Pastor Harold would most likely be in heaven soon. And we had moved too far away to visit him. He passed away a few days ago and Josh has flown back to Georgia to assist with the service and minister to our sweet north Georgia framily. It was a tough loss after losing Linda only a few months ago. Pastor Harold truly was a dear friend, mentor and adopted grandpa to our girls (and an adopted dad to us at times!).

Please pray for his family and the community as they cope with the loss of such a great man who impacted so many. His memory and celebration of life spur us on, to continue in our calling, to honor Pastor Harold's legacy by living out our own walk of faith. On the post-worthy days and on the difficult days. With humility and compassion for others. Just like Pastor Harold modeled for us each day of his amazing life.