Behold, I make all things new...

 Photo Credit: Ronboring

Perfectionism's temptations are a tension.  On the one hand, I want things just so. And to get things just so, I could allow myself to enter a cycle that is potentially endless:  

A tweak here, a tuck there. 

A spit and polish. 

A stand back and evaluate. 

A sigh and re-do. 

On the other hand, I could choose to give up completely...  Perfectionism is one exhausting bully!

Tonight, it was drafting this week's schedule (something I'm trying to be more diligent about). After several minutes of feeling overwhelmed and frustrated, I resigned to the fact that I was stuck. 

I sat there in the mud for a few minutes, feeling defeated, when I suddenly noticed my husband's voice. He and his two best college buddies were chatting on a conference call, and--though I wasn't trying to eavesdrop-- their topic of conversation caught my attention.

"There's a scene in The Passion of the Christ," my husband said, "where Jesus looks at Mary and says 'Behold, I make all things new.' That is my favorite scene."

And there it was-- God's surprising reply to my perfectionism. Behold, I make all things new.

Behold...

Stop. Look. 

I make...

In your perfectionist thinking, you overestimate your personal power.  I am the one who makes, who supremely is.

all things...

I offer my love everywhere, to all people, through all things-- even stuck-in-the-mud situations and (gasp) imperfect schedules.

new.

I have My own definition of 'perfect'... and new is the very beginning. 

His definition of perfect-- that's what I want to aim for. And the next time I find myself struggling, I will repeat the words that wilted today's perfectionism: "Behold, I make all things new."

Weekend Link Love

 Photo Credit: Jair65

A few sweet reads that remind me of childhood innocence and the art of not taking one's self too seriously:

Let Your Kids Get Dirty  @ Simple Mom

Six @ In the Heart of my Home

Managing With Grace @ Testosterhome


May you and your family enjoy a blessed and refreshing weekend!

~Kelly

Why, hello there!

Photo Credit: Smart Annie

This blog has been bubbling up in my mind and in my heart for some time now. I wanted to create a place, for mothers and for myself... A place where we can be encouraged to learn, live, and love intentionally.

You see, being intentional is not a natural strength of mine. I am a daydreamer, a procrastinator, a sinner.

But God, in his grace, is nudging me in a different direction. And so I'm trying... and it's hard. We mothers fight constant battles in our souls and in our kitchens, and usually in both.

Will you join me in this journey to grow in purposefulness, self-giving, and determination in order to bring Love into all corners of the homes that we live in?

To keep a clean and beautiful home,

To give each day structure and purpose,

To use resources wisely, (whether natural or financial),

To enter fully into the rhythms of daily life-- working and playing, fasting and feasting when appropriate,

To learn how to best love each family member and do that immediately,

To cultivate and maintain friendships outside of the home,

To encourage laughter,

To cast off the choke hold of perfectionism and the millstone of apathy,

**To remember, always, the real reason for doing what we do.

"That my actual life is the focus of my apprenticeship to Jesus is crucial. Knowing this can help deliver us from the genuine craziness that the current distinction between "full-time Christian service" and "part-time Christian service" imposes on us. For a disciple of Jesus is not necessarily one devoted to doing specifically religious things as that is usually understood.

To repeat, I am learning from Jesus how to lead my life, my whole life, my real life... My discipleship to Jesus is, within, clearly definable limits, not a matter of what I do, but of how I do it. And it covers everything, 'religious' or not.

Brother Lawrence, who was a kitchen worker and cook, remarks, 'Our sanctification does not depend upon changing our works, but in doing that for God's sake which we commonly do for our own. . . It is a great delusion to think that the times of prayer ought to differ from other times. We are as strictly obliged to adhere to God by action in the time of action as by prayer in the season of prayer.'

...It is precisely this life that God wants us to give to him. We must only be careful to understand its true dignity. To every person we can say with confidence, 'You, in the midst of your actual life there, are exactly the person God wanted.'"

-From "How To Be a Disciple" by Dallas Willard