You keep him in perfect peace
whose mind is stayed on you,
because he trusts in you.
Trust in the LORD forever,
for the LORD GOD is an everlasting rock.
Dear Imperfect Mom,
Today I want you to take off your mother hat. I want to address you as a woman, a child, and a princess of God. We’re going to gaze longingly into our Savior’s eyes. Do you see Him? Do you see the twinkle in His eye when He looks at you? It’s the same twinkle you get in your eye when your precious baby smiles up at you or you see your 5 year old in a new light or your teenager has a light-bulb moment. Jesus has that towards you. Those moments that make us smile and know we’ll never forget them? Jesus sees you the same way.
Let’s sit with Him. Today!! Just know Him. Know His love for you. Know His grace toward you. Be free to let the kitchen have some clutter. Be all right with toys on the floor. Put away your Pinterest-perfect project. I mean it. Put it away. It’s not going to look like the picture anyway. You can come back after you’ve let these truths set in. Put away the magazine too. You will never look like the airbrushed model on the page. Nor will your house. Put away the blogs. Put away the social media.
Now.
Be still!! Know that He is God. (Psalm 46:10)
Be imperfect because Christ was perfect for you.
Be imperfect because Christ was perfect for you. #imperfectmom Click To Tweet
It is finished.
It is accomplished for you already.
Gaze at your Savior!
Gaze at the cross!!
Ponder all that it means FOR you.
Rest there!
Ponder His grace – the moment of His substitution.
Ponder His grace – the moment of His substitution. #imperfectmom Click To Tweet
Don’t think about what you have to do to love Him.
There is nothing.
Now this will be hard but. . . .
Do ponder your sin for a moment.
See yourself as Isaiah.
“Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a [wo]man of unclean lips” (Is. 6:5).
Fall broken before Him.
Confess your perfectionism.
Confess your determination to do it yourself.
Repent of it ALL!!!!
Now surrender.
Give him that perfectionism.
Tell Him you want Christ’s perfection to cover you.
Tell Him you want Christ’s perfection to cover you. #imperfectmom Click To Tweet
Know. This. Truth!!!
Be free!!!
Because you are free.
It’s final!!
Now Sit!!
Sit at the feet of Jesus.
Be like Mary and run after the necessary Thing (Luke 10:42).
Don’t ponder the “rules.”
Don’t think on the “How to be a better Christian/Mom/Wife” blog you just read yesterday.
Turn your eyes upon Jesus.
Look full in His wonderful face.
See HIM.
Savor HIM.
You make known to me the path of life; in your
presence there is fullness of joy;
at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
This is where we find our joy and our pleasure. In His presence. We don’t find it in our husband. We don’t find our joy in our children. One word: toddlers! (Or teenagers for that matter.) We won’t find it in a Better Homes & Garden home. Beauty fades. We will not find Jesus when we are seeking to be perfect like Him.
Our ONLY joy is in Christ. It’s found in surrendering the perfectionism we seek and resting in the perfection He lived out for us.
If you are plagued with perfectionism, it will not be fixed overnight. It won’t come from reading blogs, magazine, books, social media, and even from our Bible study that teaches us to be “better” Christians. It isn’t until we stop studying how to live as a Christian and turn to His Word to simply know Him that the Holy Spirit began to make us more like Him. It’s never been about us and being better. We find our freedom in that truth!!
No perfectionism.
No pressure to perform.
No pressure to do more.
It’s about surrender to Him.
Daily!!
Speaking gospel truth to ourselves.
If you are a child of God, you have been given the Holy Spirit. He leads. He convicts. And if He’s moving you to a specific outpouring of savoring Him, He will provide you the means and ability to do it. That is His promise to us.
And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. 2 Corinthians 9:8
And God is able to make all grace abound to you, #imperfectmom Click To Tweet
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 2 Corinthians 12:9-10
I am a perfectionist wife married to a man who is not. I am a perfectionist homeschool mom of seven pretty awesome children. They range from ages five to sixteen. Of the nineteen years I have been a wife and mom, this is by far the greatest lesson I have ever learned. It changed everything in our home. I’ve stopped striving to do something and have made myself simply rest at the feet of Jesus. It’s peaceful there. And I encourage everyone to join me.
See and savor Jesus.
About the Author: Karen Tryon lives with her family in metro Atlanta, GA. Karen is native Texan and proud of it. She’s been married for 19 years to her best friend, Chris. Together, they have seven children, ages five to sixteen. In her spare time (LOL!!!!) she loves to read books, sew, and do various craft projects that she can finish in an afternoon. Karen holds a secondary degree in social studies education. She has found her passion for teaching her own children in a style that was impossible in a classroom setting. Their family is involved in homeschool speech and debate and loves it. She doesn’t currently have a blog but dreams of having time someday to keep one.
