Sunday, March 4, 2012

Help! I can't find my SuperMom Cape!

Some days it seems I'm a little thick in the head, slow to learn.

I love sewing. I love a clean, uncluttered house. I love my children. And I want my children to learn to love the things I love - because if we didn't have them to share the world with them, why did we have them?

But teaching them is more difficult than doing it for them.

Yet infinitely more rewarding.

I know that if I invest some time and energy now in teaching them how to properly clean a home or to sew a straight seam or to square up a quilt they will have skills they will find useful their entire lives. But it requires being intentional and focused and patient.

Qualities that I possess to a degree, but that I am provided daily opportunities to practice. Because the doctor didn't present me with a SuperMom cape when he delivered my babies, and I was not born perfect.

But I love The One who is. And He loves me. And He is endlessly patient. He is the Teacher who understands me better than I understand myself, who gently provides me with countless opportunities and varied situations in which to practice the lesson of the day.

Who knew that while teaching my children how to sort and fold laundry and scrub a toilet, the teacher would become the student? How often in my quest to find the bottom of the laundry basket or the floor in a child's room have I really only succeeded in proving just how imperfect I am?

Sometimes I succeed with my timing - recognize my need to refocus before it's too late, catch the tiles before they all come crashing down.

Sometimes I don't.

I fall to my knees - sometimes literally, sometimes figuratively. I sneak away for a moment to regroup, to pray, to remember my priority is to love my children and the rest doesn't matter. We do forgiveness in this family. We do grace. We do humility. I apologize and ask.

And then God places me exactly where he wants me - teaching Sunday School, filling in last-minute for a friend with a sick child.

Today's lesson?

"We seek forgiveness with God's help."

But we have to ask for that help before we can receive.

Conviction and affirmation rolled up neatly together in a one-hour ball of energetic and eager ears.

Think God doesn't have a sense of humor? Think again...

We put our hope in the Lord. He is our help and our shield. ~Psalm 33:20


1 comment:

  1. It's kind of funny how God works...the last two weeks' lessons definitely felt as though they were written especially for me...from your friend with the sick child...THANK YOU for filling in last minute today! I love how you summed up Sunday School..."a one-hour ball of energetic and eager ears".
    Charity

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