Open Home

I have a confession to make…My neighbours’ house is for sale, and curious me, decided to pop over during the open home for a peek. I was spared the embarrassment of telling the real estate agent that I was just a nosy neighbour, by the fact he had spied me exit my front door. Busted eh!

It is always interesting viewing a house that has been prepped, cleaned and staged for an open home. (Depending on how committed the vendors are). Just enough personal effects out to help you visualise how you could live in it. But not too many to overwhelm you with the personality of the current occupants. There’s always less furniture and wardrobes, garages even are all immaculate.

I know what its like. We sold our last house a few years ago. We ended up with a lot of our extra furniture in a storage facility. And I can tell you, the house was pristine! (Amazing looking back given I had 2 preschoolers and a baby on the way!)

The question is when it comes to ourselves and those we interact with, do we present our “open home” face or our real, authentic selves?

In the days of Social media, we can easily fall into the trap of thinking that people’s lives are as perfect as their Facebook status updates, and feel insignificant or unsatisfied with our own as a result. Even when we see each other for real, we can be presented with the best and it can throw our contentment in our own lives.

We need to remember to be authentic and real with each other. To remember not to compare our private lives with someone else’s public face. Or better yet, don’t compare your everyday life to someone else’s highlight reel.

So yes, I did come in and set to on cleaning the kitchen. But I also sat on our lounge floor and helped my 2 year old build a train track, while my husband was upstairs with the othe two boys and a truckload of Lego trailing from one bedroom to the other. At the end of the day my house is a lived in home!

You see, I’d choose my lived in, real home any day.

“Let everyone be sure to do his very best, for then he will have the personal satisfaction of work done well and won’t need to compare himself with someone else.” (Galatians 6:4)