I never knew I could struggle with being a perfectionist until I became a mom. Suddenly I wanted to do everything absolutely perfectly—after all, we were talking about my sweet baby’s wellbeing here.
- I wanted to always meet all of my children’s emotional, physical, and spiritual needs right away and to the fullest extent possible.
- I wanted to never lose my temper with my sweet babies, never give into selfishness, never experience an unwillingness to make sacrifices for the good of my little ones.
- I wanted to always provide my children with the best nutrition out there.
- I wanted to take my little ones to the park on a weekly basis at least (if not more!) and provide them with all the fun and special childhood memories they could possibly want.
Well, I’m sure by now that you can guess how far those good intentions got me, right? About one day into motherhood and then—boom! Temper lost. Sacrifices fought. Selfishness exposed. And the rest of the list crumbled as the months and years went by.
It can feel incredibly tempting to roll over in despair, distraught over just what an imperfect mom I really am. And yet God, in His mercy and grace, taught me a truly beautiful lesson a couple months back when this imperfect mama was shown just how much the gospel can be made tangible and clear to my children specifically through my imperfections.
I don’t know what the problem was exactly, but I swear my three-year-old, Anna, and I must have both awakened on the wrong side of the bed that morning. From morning until afternoon, we went through this vicious cycle of mama yelling at Anna, Anna yelling at Mama, Mama praying with Anna that Jesus would forgive Mama and give her strength, and on and on it went, from prayer to yelling, from prayer to yelling, and back again.
What was wrong with me?
To read the rest, head to Her View From Home!
