God deserves our best, but doesn’t require perfection.
Errr…Wait, I guess he does require perfection. A perfect God who asks for nothing less.
Where does that leave this imperfect mama? Missing the mark, drowning in weakness, hopelessness, despairing of ever getting it right? It could. But God tells me something different. God tells me that my weakness can lead me to rely on my strong Savior. God tells me that my imperfection can lead me to depend on my perfect mediator. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. And we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all (Hebrews 10).
Do you feel imperfect and inadequate in your parenting like I often do…time and time again? I want to share a prayer that I found in one of Dr. Dobson’s books. I hang it in my home school room, the place where my imperfection often takes center stage.
Lord, You know my inadequacies. You know my weaknesses, not only in being a wife and a parent, but in every area of my life. I’m doing the best I can to support my family properly but it may not be good enough. As you provided the fish and the loaves to feed the five thousand hungry people, now take my meager effort and use it to bless my family. Make up for the things I do wrong. Satisfy the needs that I have not met. Compensate for my blunders and mistakes. Wrap your great arms around my children, and draw them close to you. And be there when they stand at the great crossroads between right and wrong. All I can give them is my best, and I will continue to do that. I submit them to you now and rededicate myself to the task you have placed before me. The outcome rests securely in your hands.
I am not perfect, my parenting is flawed. What could be called the blind leading the blind is now called perfected through dependence on my Savior. Perfect.
