The Difference Between “Easy” and “Simple”

As I was thinking about my next Uncomplicated Life post, I was struck by the fact that simplifying does not always mean making things easier. So I headed over to dictionary.com to see if there was a difference in the two words.  Here are the definitions I found:

easy: not hard or difficult; requiring no great labor or effort

simple: not elaborate or artificial; plain

I love how the definition for “easy” focuses on the output required to do the thing while the definition for “simple” focuses on the thing itself.  I mentioned in the post on Uncomplicated Cooking that preparing simple meals (i.e. meals that are not artificial or elaborate) is very different than taking the easy route (let’s face it, boxed mac n cheese does not require a great labor or effort).  This thinking can be applied to almost every realm of our lives.  And, in my opinion, simple trumps easy almost every time.

Take parenting, for example.  To parent our children well is really quite simple.  We must love them consistently, provide consistent boundaries and consequences, teach them consistent truths.  Not rocket science, to be sure, though scores of books have been written to muddy the waters and make us think that there is some magic formula to perfect parenting and perfect children.

In reality, it’s quite simple.  But easy?

Ummmm….NO.

Is it easy to love consistently when you’ve had 4 hours of sleep or your child is asking the same question for the thousandth time?  No.  Is it easy to provide consistent boundaries when you know that giving in (just this once) would mean a lot less whining in the short term?  No. Is it easy to teach truth consistently when our own tempers and sinful natures rear their ugly heads?  No.  Definitely not easy.  But not all that complicated either.

My challenge to myself right now is to look at how I am living and see if I am aiming for simplicity (which, I think, is a good thing) or just going with what’s easiest (which is often not best in the long run).  That isn’t to say that easy doesn’t sometimes win out (or shouldn’t sometimes win out).  But I want the balance of my life to be marked by choosing what is best, not what is easiest.

Sounds simple enough, right?  But it doesn’t seem to be all that easy…