For weeks I have been thinking about the first day of school and how wonderful it was going to be. How I planned to have a special breakfast, on nice plates, something that we didn’t normally have and do things that we didn’t normally do. Try to make it special and memorable.
I had plans to have everyones work all typed out and labeled and ready to go.
I had plans to make sure the house was spotless so I could devote all my time to my little students.
Supper would be put in the crockpot early so I didn’t have to worry much with that as the day progressed.
Everyone would be groomed for their first day of school picture.
I would make sure we checked off every subject on my master list…
Ideally, in my mind, the perfect first day of school should have happened today.
Guess what? It didn’t happen. It was not perfect.
Nope.
Not even close.
But you know what?
It was still pretty great.
We had devotion together.
We prayed together.
We read together.
Separate lessons were done.
Copywork.
Math.
Spelling.
History.
Piano.
And so on and so forth…
We got our first day of school down for the books.
It won’t go down in our history books as the most special first day ever…
But it was good.
Perfection is such a joy sucker.
We all seek it in one way or another, I believe.
We have to realize that perfection is not something we need to strive for,
I NEED TO REMIND MYSELF OF THIS!
The little adage that says…
Practice makes perfect.
No.
Practice makes progress.
Yes it does.
Practice making sure you pray with your kids.
Practice making sure that your kids see you overcoming obstacles rather than becoming defeated by self-doubt, worry, self-condemnation, fear, or any other thing that is not promoting the fruit of the Spirit.
Practice making sure that you accomplish goals you set for yourself and for your family. Even if they don’t get done in the time you set… persevere.
Practice using that loving tone with your family instead of that exasperated, overwhelmed voice that tends to come out of my mouth way too often. Sigh.
All these things and many more are good ways to practice making the best out of every situation. Making every moment of every day a learning experience. A wonderful growing experience.
Imperfection… it’s like those beauty for ashes…
He will make our feeble efforts beautiful if we turn all our imperfections over to Christ.
Progress.
I’m not where I should be, but Praise the Lord, He’s still working on me.
This is such a timely post.
Thank you for the gentle reminder that God alone is perfect and we've lost our way when we make that the goal.
I am going to make a point to remember that practice makes progress, not perfection.
Shine on,
Jen