purging...

I came across this beautiful quote the other day on my cute friend Kylie's blog. It has spent a lot of time playing over in my mind:

"Some mothers seem to have the capacity and energy to make their children's clothes, bake, give piano lessons, go to Relief Society, teach Sunday School, attend parent-teacher association meetings and so on. Other mothers look upon such women as models and feel inadequate, depressed, and think they are failures when they make comparisons...Sisters, do not allow yourselves to be made to feel inadequate or frustrated because you cannot do everything others seem to be accomplishing. Rather, each should assess her own situation, her own energy, and her own talents, and then choose the best way to mold her family into a team, a unit that works together and supports eachother. Only you and your Father in Heaven know your needs, strengths, and desires. Around this knowledge your personal course must be charted and your choices made."
*Marvin J. Ashton*

So last night, I deleted close to 100 websites from my favorites list. Blogs I checked every once in awhile. Photographers I admired. Cooking sites. Here's the thing. My food never tasted as good as theirs looked. My kids were never dressed quite as cute as so and so's, nor were their bedrooms as fabulous. My photography couldn't even compare to some of what I was checking out. I was comparing. Every single day. My mothering abilities, my home decor, my kids haircuts, my pictures. I was bombarding myself with things that were of little or no importance. And they were all making me feel crummy.

The wonderful thing is, we are all so unique. We have very personal gifts and abilities given to us by an all-knowing Heavenly Father. Qualities that make us capable of amazing things...things that only WE can do. I felt so refreshed every time I clicked delete last night. The computer would ask me if I was sure I wanted to erase it from my hard drive. Yup...I'm sure.