After I finished my reading this morning, I whisked myself off to the kitchen to make myself a nice healthy breakfast next to cream-laden coffee. At the stroke of seven I flicked on the CD player and started up song eleven. Mandisa’s “Good Morning” blared through our house as I stood in waiting outside my children’s doors to pop my head in at them and sing at just the right line in the song.
I was not greeted with smiles.
I was greeted with groans of disapproval and dismay at the night being over and another day of school laying in wait for my children like a lion ready to pounce and devour. They may love school, but they do not love getting up for it.
As I bustled them along we magically managed to get both children bathed, dressed, fed, lunches packed and on the bus in THIRTY MINUTES! And I was practically strutting back into the house as they waved to me from the bus. Well, I pretend they wave back to me anyway, even if I can’t see them doing it. It’s too bad the “hate” school so much.
Yup. I was feeling like quite the awesome mom this morning. I was peppy and upbeat, kind and loving AND on time which is a hard one for me. I was walking tall and proud. (Can you hear the heavenly trumpets playing a victory song for me? Cause I’m pretty sure they did.)
I should have known.
I sat down at my desk full of vim and vigor from the successful send off this morning, ready to face another day of Preschool preparations and plans. As I started checking my calendar for the day and making some important phone calls, I found it. (bum bum BUM!)
Anna’s first homework assignment for first grade, and it WAS due Friday. It had gotten buried on my desk and I had completely forgotten about it.
POP! Mom confidence deflated in 0.2 seconds. Sigh… it was fun while it lasted…
You know, that feeling like you’re on top of the world and in charge and in control; and everything is handled. It feels great. But then something crosses your path that makes you feel about an inch tall, if you’re lucky. And you feel horrible for letting your family down.
Bad mom, bad!
You mentally strike yourself for not being perfect. Your record of mom success has been blemished and it will never be the same.
But what on earth makes us think that we should hold ourselves to that kind of standard anyway? I mean seriously, where do we get that drive to feel like we have to be perfect ALL the time otherwise we feel like a bad mom in need of punishment.
Who ever said that you were supposed to be perfect anyway?
And then I remembered it. The phrase I had underlined multiple times in my Bible this morning:
“without blemish” Ezekiel 43:23&25
Ezekiel was detailing the form of sacrifice that was acceptable to the LORD. Each time he said the phrase “without blemish” I underlined it, because it struck a chord in my heart. Jesus, so very unlike me, is the perfect sacrifice; He is without blemish or stain.
The Law requires perfection. Period. And while the Law is perfect in every possible way, WE AREN’T. We never have been and we never will be. We’re human, plain and simple and perfectly imperfect in every way. And that’s OK! You know why, because if we were perfect, then we wouldn’t need a perfect Savior.
If I were the perfect mom every second of every day then I would have no occasion to ask God to help me, to lead me, to say the things that my kids need to hear and do the things that my kids need for me to do.
My imperfections lead me to Jesus, the perfect sacrifice. In the Old Covenant when someone sinned and fell short of the glory of God they would choose the most perfect lamb from their flock and take it to the tabernacle to be sacrificed in order to justify them before our Perfect God.
Today when we sin and fall short of the glory of God, we need only to go to our Bible and hold out the perfect Lamb of God – Jesus.
He has justified us completely from all our sins for all time. He is the perfect sacrifice, offered up once and for all for the justification of one and all. Yes, even YOU.
No. ESPECIALLY YOU!
You have been justified by His Grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus! Don’t let your one failure ruin your otherwise perfect day! Pick yourself, dust yourself off, and keep moving forward.
I could let this one missed homework assignment haunt me for days with Mommy Guilt, but I’m not going to. While I may not be the Perfect Mom, I am the perfect mom for my kids. No amount of missed homework assignments can change that.
Thank God! Because I’m SURE there will be more!
Tamar Knochel 