Lilli and I had a FaceTime chat yesterday, while I was making dinner. She gets to watch the iPad while her own dinner is being made, so she really likes it when we can watch something together. We talk over my iPad while I put a show on my phone, turn the camera around to face it, and she can hear my voice while she watches the show.

Where would we be without our electronics?

About halfway through the show, Brody started to get a little antsy and decided to let everyone know about it. His sister was the least impressed in the room.

“Come on, Mimmie. I’m taking you to my room!”

Soon, we were in there, and she said “Gracious, it’s dark in here! Let me turn on the light!”

(We might be related.)

Then she asked, “Mimmie, do you want to sit on the table or Sissy’s bed?”

I picked the table, so we settled in for a chat. We discussed her bedroom, and she thanked me again for putting it together (I’d done a little decorating in there). Then she showed me a candle where a fly had met its doom, and when I said, “Aw, poor fly,” she said, “Blech. Disgusting.”

(She and her mother might be related.)

She talked about her Sissy for a bit, then she said, “Mimmie, when are you coming to my house?”

I answered, “Next week, honey. I’ll be there in just a few days.”

She perked up immediately and said, “YES. I like it SO MUCH BETTER when it’s REALLY YOU!”

And you know what?

I do, too.

I think we all like ourselves and others better when we bring the real us to the table, when we leave the flat, two-dimensional us at home and opt for the 100% authentic. You can really only get so far in a relationship otherwise.

Yes, I like it a lot better when it’s really Lilli, too. Sweet little body in my arms and curly little head on my shoulder. It’s infinitely, wonderfully better when it’s really her and really me.

“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” Ephesians 2:10 ESV

“I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.” Psalm 139:14 ESV