I'm Not Perfect--Yet

I had a thought just the other day about the fact that my children, so far, were not growing up in an immaculate home. Don’t get me wrong, we are not living in squalor, it’s just that even though we clean, the entire house is NEVER clean at the same time. I may have five loads of laundry on the homeschool table, but the toilet is squeaky clean; fresh oatmeal may be on the wall, but the bills are all paid, annotated and filed in the appropriate place; Toys strewn all around my feet, but experience an overwhelming sense of peace having just finished the fifth interview with my father about his life.

It doesn’t always look pretty.

My friend Wendy has perfectly white teeth.
My friend Roseann has a perfectly clean house.
My friend Diane is the perfect homeschool mom.
My friend Shelley lives in the house of her dreams.
My friend Aimee is a super-frugal savvy shopper.
My friend Isabelle has a perfect marriage.
My friend Nina is a good saver.
My sister Sharon has the faith to move mountains and courage to match.

Although I have experienced flashes of these things, perfect moments here and there, I am not and do not do all them all. BUT let me tell you what I realized today while studying about hope in the Preach My Gospel manual. I learned that being an example of diligence and hope and patience, even in all of my imperfection is as important as doing the right thing all the time.
Do you know what that means?!

It means that I don’t have to obsess about that fact that I’m not perfect all the time.
It means that I can take a breath, scan the room (or the mirror, whatever the case may be), soak up my own reality, and move forward doing the best that I can.
But more important than anything, it means that my children get to see how to move ahead in life and not get discouraged or paralyzed even when everything doesn’t go their way.

Because my home is not clean all the time, my children get to learn from me how to clean it and actually get the satisfaction of seeing a corner of it change from chaos to order.
Because my body is not perfect yet, my children get to see me go from struggling to jog for one minute to running a 5K.
Because my husband and I fight sometimes, my children get to see how we always make up and truly enjoy each other.
Because I am not a perfectly patient homeschool mom, my children get to learn that even adults need to apologize to kids sometimes.
Because my teeth are a little yellow, we get to see if Crest Whitening Strips really work.

It’s direction, not speed! Stephen Covey said something about successful families that rings very true to me. He said that successful families are off track about 90% of the time, but the difference is that they know what the track looks like and they keep going back to it.

Today, I am going to feel GREAT about looking completely derailed, because I know what the track looks like and I’m going back to it every time. Wanna come?