I have been mentoring a dear, sweet, young woman. It has definitely been true in our situation, she has taught me as much as I have taught her.
A few weeks ago we did a mentoring session over the phone. During our conversation I apologized for not being perfect. She said, Beanie (that’s what most people close to me, call me) I didn’t and don’t need you to be perfect. She said, “I needed to see you make mistakes. I needed to see you struggle. I needed to watch God pick you up. I needed to watch you trust God, especially when it was hard, and watch him pick you up.” She said, “I learned to trust God from watching you and my mom.”
I was speechless and in awe. She gave me an amazing gift that day! God showed me through this precious young lady, I don’t need to be perfect. In fact, she showed me, I am a beautiful mess.
I began thinking about this in light of my relationship with my own kids. They don’t need me to be perfect, they need me to be human in front of them. They need to see me belly flop, make mistakes, and blow it big. They need to see me sob in front of my heavenly father, then watch as he works miracle after miracle in our lives. They need to see him answer our prayers, not always how I wanted, but usually better than we had imaged.
It’s hard to live up to someone who never shows their humanness to the world. Our kids catch more than they are taught. They come to their own unspoken conclusions on their own. When I constantly talk about my humanness with them, it opens up conversation, and reassures them I am as human as the next person.
You, too, sweet mama have beautiful imperfections. Imperfections that make you relatable to your kiddos. Imperfections that make you relatable to the world. This not only makes us beautiful messes, it gives us permission to be imperfect!
You are doing a great job, you are beautiful, messy-imperfection and all!
