There’s this family who lives in my neighborhood.
The husband has a good job and the mom stays home. Their two kids are well-behaved, do well in
school, and are well-rounded – they play instruments, various sports, are involved
in several extra-curricular activities.
The family goes on regular vacations.
They are involved in their church, have extended families who visit
often, lots of friends. They always keep
their yard mowed. The inside of their
house is organized and clean. The
husband and wife drive decent cars. They
exercise regularly, enjoy each other as a family, and the parents go on date
nights. Anyone would say that these
people love each other, and that they live in a loving, stable home.
This is my family, and we look darn good on paper.
In reality, my husband works long hours and travels more
than either one of us would like. I stay
home and have had more than one day where I contemplate the insufferable
boredom of housewifery and dream of escaping this life for a more glamorous
one. My kids fight with each other. A lot.
They take instrument lessons, but they must be yelled at and/or bribed
to practice. Same for doing their homework. And sports.
We take the same vacations every year because my parents invite us. I stress out a little too much – okay, a lot
too much – when friends and family come to visit. We’ve skipped church the past few Sundays for
no other reason than because we didn't feel like going. My husband walks around the house for hours on Saturdays and talks about
how he is going to mow the yard and it drives me nuts. Most times he asks our son to do it. If I have to stick my hand down another one toilet
to clean or push the vacuum around one more time I might lose my mind. I hate to exercise, but I hate how terrible I
feel when I don’t. On any given day our
house is filled with the sounds of crying, yelling, blaring TVs, sarcastic
remarks, and the silent treatment. We
all love each other, except for the times when we don’t.
We may look good on paper, but we are not perfect.
Sometimes I wonder how this life came to be. How did things get out of hand in this
situation? How did we make such a big
mistake here? Why did we decide to do
this? My mind fills with questions that
only have one answer: Because we are
human. Not perfect.
Every night I pray that I would live the life that God
intends me to live, that I am doing exactly what he wants for me, that I am walking
the path he laid out for me, that our family is on the right track. I have no way of knowing if we are doing the
right thing. I have no idea of knowing
for sure if God is smiling down on us, if he is pleased with us.
Jesus is the only perfect human who walked on this earth. We have his example to follow. It is hard; impossible for me to achieve in my time here. Jesus is the only one who looks as good on paper as he does in real life.
Jesus is the only perfect human who walked on this earth. We have his example to follow. It is hard; impossible for me to achieve in my time here. Jesus is the only one who looks as good on paper as he does in real life.
I have faith that someday I – and my family – will be like
Jesus, will be as perfect in real life as on paper. I trust that God, who promised us a life in
heaven, his perfect home, will make us perfect as well. Our humanness will be gone, our imperfections
smoothed over.
But today, I have to settle for looking better on paper.
Look! We even coordinate our outfits! |
*******
Now all glory to God, who is able to keep you
from falling away and will bring you with great joy into his glorious presence
without a single fault. Jude 1:24 (NLT)
Let's go with Benjamin Franklin on this one...
ReplyDeleteFranklin believed (and wrote about it in his Autobiography) that through the execution of a very rational and well thought out plan (on paper, by the way), he could achieve moral perfection. It's all very logical and systematic...thirteen moral virtues, each to be focused on for a week. The first should, says Franklin, lead to the betterment of the second and so forth. After thirteen weeks, repeat. This can be accomplished four times in a year...the ultimate goal being the achievement of moral perfection.
It failed.
Naturally.
But Franklin reflected that while the endeavor may have been a technical failure, it was still a definite success as he ended up still imperfect, but managed to become better in all of those areas than when he first began. He also said that he learned to accept the imperfections and be satisfied with the knowledge that progress is still progress.
Smart guy, that Franklin.
Progress is still progress. I like that.
DeleteThanks for the wonderful comment - you always seem to give me something else to think about. :)