Forget Perfection

While looking for balance there has been a recurring theme that keeps popping up. Namely no matter how nicely your schedule looks on paper, or how you envision your goals falling into line and happening perfectly, this will not happen.

I used to think that if a situation couldn’t play out how I wanted it to, then I should probably just give up. For example when I do my devotions I envision a good half hour of peaceful quiet meditation and prayer, digging into the word of God, looking over commentaries, or pondering over parts of a deep devotional book. Everything from the lighting to my mood should be “just right”. Well if you have lived in a house with 2 children you know that the above scenario will likely NEVER happen. I’m not a morning person so getting up super early results in me being cranky and bleary eyed while reading. If I try to do them at night I’m so exhausted I can’t keep my eyes from crossing. If I do them after either one of the kids are up the result is many interruptions and a shorter block of time.

So until this year I just gave up on my devotions most days. I figured if it couldn’t be “right” then I couldn’t do them. This year I have completely ditched that attitude with my No Excuses motto. I do them while my daughter is awake and eating breakfast but before my son is up. Usually it looks more like a hurried 10 minutes of Bible reading and prayer, with Amber popping in and wiggling all over my bed from time to time. But you know what? It works. I am still starting my day off with God and on the right foot. An added bonus is that Amber is actually seeing me pray and read my Bible and learning to respect that and leave Mommy alone, or at least be quiet, during my time with God.

Some days everything goes haywire still. In fact the other day we were all having such a bad day and my whole schedule was out of whack. So I put each one of us in timeout–myself included. My timeout looked like me grabbing a Morning and Evening Devo by Charles Spurgeon, reading the one page there, and praying something along the lines of, “God I’m about to go crazy today, you better step in and help me out or this could get ugly real quick.” Even that short, very un-perfect devotional time helped turn my day and my attitude around.

So forget perfection! Life is messy, and so will your time with God be. Just dig in and determine to do it every day-especially on the crazy ones!

Copyright © Nicole Elliott, Moms of Faith, All Rights Reserved