I am sitting on an airplane on my way to a conference and I am so frustrated! I couldn’t find the top I need to wear tonight. Just couldn’t find it. I tore the house up looking for it. How do things like that happen? How can you lose an outfit you wear all the time? Well, I am just not as organized as folks think. I’m not all put together. I goof up.
I goof up a lot. I forget to do things. I forget where I put things. I lose my temper over stupid stuff. Stuff like not being able to find the shrug I need for the perfect outfit for this event tonight. I remember bringing it downstairs. I remember putting it in the sorting bin. How hard is it for a family to manage to get a load out of the bin, into the washer, into the dryer, and folded without important stuff going missing in action along the way? Evidently, too hard for my family.
I get distracted. Have you ever opened up a new tab in your browser and in the two seconds it took to load, forgotten what in the world you opened it up for? I do this all the time. And don’t even talk to me about school. Never, never, never check email or Facebook during school time. How do I know this? I’ve been known to check our Raising Real Men Facebook page, see a hurting mom with a question and entirely forget I was in the middle of doing school, “Mom? Mom? MOM!” Oh, right. Uh, what subject were we doing? And did I really put that shrug in the sorting bin? Hmmmmm…
I get my priorities messed up. Like the time I was busy trying to finish a blog post and one of our sons kept interrupting me, “Not now, honey. I’m working. Please hush.” I looked down at my computer and saw what I’d just written, “If you want your son to listen to you, listen to him.” Ouch.
I am not a perfect mom. Really. Even though I write parenting books and give parenting advice and speak to thousands of people about parenting every year. Nope. Not only imperfect, but very flawed. I often feel broken, a failure. I know I am a sinner.
There is grace.
Our children have imperfect moms, but they (and we) have a perfect Father in heaven.
A Father “Who forgives all your iniquities” “and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.”
A Father who says, “So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten,” (and maybe schooldays, too!).
A Father who stands in the gaps. One who loves our children more than we do.
Flee to Him, Mama, and know you don’t have to be perfect. He is.
He is and he loves us. We can rest in Him.
I still wish I could wear that outfit tonight. (And if you see that shrug I’m wearing in the picture, let me know!)
Your friend,
Melanie Young
Melanie Young is the mother of six sons and two daughters and the author with her husband, Hal, of the 2011 CSPA Book of the Year, Raising Real Men, and the 2015 Book of the Year, My Beloved and My Friend: How to be Married to Your Best Friend Without Changing Spouses. They are popular conference speakers internationally. Websites: RaisingRealMen.com HalandMelanie.com. Social: Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Pinterest.
