Once I heard that there was only one perfect home…and even that didn’t last long- ha! We all know how the story of the delightful Eden ends.

Pencil sharpeners full of shavings, library books about crafts on the ottoman, and date pits on a napkin is our ‘perfect’ today. Maybe tomorrow it will just be a basket of baby toys and books creating quiet time next to the sofa. But I’m grateful for this far-from-perfect, because to me this gives me hope that there are diligent, creative, healthy children in our home.

We’re all very aware that Instagram and Pinterest often decide for us what the perfect little life looks like. They are plastic portals into plastic worlds. We admire (and maybe covet) the pretty that we are shown, but even though pictures may tell a thousand words, do they tell the truth?? Pretty doesn’t equal happy. The truth is that our little life is messy, full of tears, nasty sibling remarks, selfishness, and so many crumbs! Yet a life of giving and love-extending is rich – full but very flawed.

Today is one of the many times I realize that my little life is far from perfect, because I am far from perfect – flawed.

Our sin separates us from God, but it also separates us from each other. Strife, bickering, selfishness, conflicts, unresolved hurts… Nothing sends me to pitty-party land faster than feeling that I’ve been handed the short end of the stick. I try to be everything to everyone, and I break. This is one of those times. A very stark realization that I am flawed in my own strength. I remember a few years ago making my one-thousand gifts list, but now all I want to do is make a list of all the things that annoy me. I feel so irritated and hurt! I’ve prayed for surrender for a week – let the stuff go; cover it with love. And this is when it gets hard. When I walk out of my prayer closet, and the feelings are still there. I know this pitty-party stinks, but stinky feels pretty good right now.

When those sinful emotions grip me, I’m tempted to think that I have fallen prey and the Truth isn’t setting me free. But the truth is that God works in us even when we don’t feel the change. “God never places us in any position in which we can not grow. We may fancy that He does. We may fear we are so impeded by fretting, petty care that we are gaining nothing; but when we are not sending branches upward, we may be sending roots downward. Perhaps in the time of our humiliation, when everything seems a failure, we are making the best kind of progress.” (George Lewis Prentiss, More Love to Thee: The Life and Letters of Elizabeth Prentiss)

I’m sharing these verses that I have prayed are a sweet comfort to you today, too!

I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.

John10:28,29

P.S. No, I never did write the list of annoyances : )

with love. Damaris