It’s Friday! But not just any Friday…today is the last Friday of August.

Y’all it is going to be September before we know it!  I’m sooo good with that because fall is my absolute favorite season.  Just in case you are wondering….YES I have already taken my fall décor out of the attic.    I don’t feel any pressure to wait until it cools down to decorate for fall.

When I get ready to put out my pumpkins and “happy fall y’all” signs….they are going out (90 degree weather and all)!

I feel NO SHAME about putting seasonal décor out early.

Isn’t it amazing how we can be so confident in one area of our lives and totally insecure in another?

About a month ago, my husband and I launched a new business called “Love By Glamping“.  We deliver “glamorous camping/glamping” experiences to our clients homes and venues. “Glamping” is camping with the amenities of a luxury hotel.

Love By Glamping is like my two loves (camping and seasonal décor) had a baby!

I felt confident and hopeful when I announced Love By Glamping to the world on Social Media last month.

Sooo many people commented about our new venture.  They shared my post and I ran a Facebook ad that was attracting a lot of “buzz”.

Finally a side hustle that is unique, profitable, scalable, and fun.

Three days later, I fell for a phishing email and my Facebook page was hacked.  The hackers put child pornography on my personal Facebook page.  Facebook disabled my page (as they should have–temporarily at least).

I went through the attempts to prove my innocence to get my page back, but my personal Facebook and business accounts as well as the Instagram accounts I had attached to my profile were disabled permanently.

I sent a copy of my license, the phishing email, even the notification from Facebook asking me if I logged on from Japan to Facebook Security.

Nothing worked.

I uploaded a video about getting banned to my TikTok account to warn other people about phishing emails.  It was also a way to educate other business owners and stress the importance of having multiple people listed as an “administrator” on a business page.

A small piece of me hoped someone at Facebook would see my video and help me.  (NOPE)

After posting the video on TikTok, several “tech” people reached out to me saying they could help me get my page back.

Yeaaahhhh, that did not work either.  I got scammed out of $120.

While all of this was going on, our first glamping booking cancelled (for unrelated reasons).

My emotions were all over the place.

Everyone’s advice was to “just start over”.

I started new pages but “just starting over” required energy and motivation I had a very hard time mustering.

Here is my truth:  I have been silently battling myself to SHOW up daily and act happy and faith filled.

After being angry at Facebook, the hackers, and myself… I felt SHAME.

Shame because as a person of faith, why was I affected so deeply?

Shame because I fell for the phishing email in the first place.

Shame because I got scammed after the phishing email.

Shame for loosing my business social media pages.

Shame for starting a new business…”girl don’t you have enough to do?”

Shame for not praying and reading my Bible more.

Shame, Shame, Shame.

And until now…I hid it.

“Shame erodes our courage and fuels disengagement.  If you put shame in a Petri dish, it needs three things to grow exponentially: secrecy, silence, and judgment. If you put the same amount of shame in a Petri dish and douse it with empathy, it can’t survive.”-Brene Brown

No more pushing myself to put on a SHOW of “everything is great”.

I will be gentle with myself, flexible enough to change plans if that is what God calls me to do, and patient enough to accept His timeline.

Matthew 22:39 reminds us that the second greatest commandment is to love others as ourselves. How many of us can honestly say that we “SHOW” ourselves the love that we know God expects us to show others?

How can you show more “self love”?

Today’s post is part of a weekly writing blog link up called Five Minute Friday.  Christian writers from all over the world share about the one word prompt that is provided every Friday.  Today’s word is SHOW.

Looking for organization or decorating inspiration? Interested in glamping in the Triad NC area?   Follow me on my “new” Social Media! 

(I am rebuilding my pages)