Tips from the Perfect Parent

My second grader came bouncing out of his Sunday school class this week over the moon happy.  In his right hand he held a tattered relic of a book.  
"I finally got one!" he says. 
"My teacher gave me my very first bible."
There is was, pages missing, cover torn, but it was his to keep.
My fail - to just realize that at almost 8, the child never owned his own bible.  

But it is in the ten steps I take back that I realize it wasn't a fail.

I am not a perfect parent. 
I don't want to be. 

God equipts me to care for my children in the way they need. And while I strive for all tens - it isn't always going to happen.  

That is where HE steps in -- providing "gap holders in times of need.

I'm not saying that it is society's responsibility to raise my children - it is mine. But in all truth, I can't be everything, everywhere, all the time. 

That is why God throws us into community.  A community of trusted people who are there to stand in the gaps, because honestly - there will be gaps.  

As much as I strive for perfection, there is only one perfect person to walk this earth.
Thankfully he has provided people to help this mom along. 

I can only help but picture in my mind, the families that will gather their children to 
"not look" when the Cloudt family runs the halls of church this week.  That really doesn't bother me.  Because I can be honest and transparent that I am not the perfect parent.  

What I am, is the parent that God wants me to be - bible forgetting, sandwich for dinner 2x a week,t-shirt wearing to church kind of mom.  He knows my weaknesses and knows my strengths.  That fact, doesn't give me an excuse --it gives me strength.

We are a mess, a beautiful mess - just dive right in and join my club.