Perspective

When I was a teenager, I saw little kids carrying a stuffed purple dinosaur around and I thought to my teenage self, "How lame!" Now I see my little girl singing and dancing to the tunes of his show and I see that giant, purple dinosaur in a whole different light. Funny how my perspective has changed.

Yesterday morning, I was reprimanding Phoebe, quite sternly, for lying....one of many interesting developments in her "almost-five" behavior recently. I guess I was coming down pretty hard on her because she started crying and said, "You are upsetting me!" Sometimes we forget how old Phoebe is because she acts much older (most of the time). We forget that she is still such a babe in many ways. I apologized for being harsh and I prayed silently, "Lord, please help me to see through the eyes of my child...give me her perspective."

Have you ever had someone over for dinner or a party and had them say something like, "Your house is always so neat...It always looks perfect." I don't know about you, but when someone says that to me, I laugh...HARD. Because I know that if they had looked inside my closet, they would have seen the pile of junk. If they had looked a little closer, they would have seen the loads of dirty laundry. They would have seen the cobwebs under beds and the dust bunnies in corners. If they had seen me scrambling just minutes before they arrived...they would have gained a little perspective.

Perfect? No way. My home does not look like a Pottery Barn catalogue, and neither does my life. There are piles of junk and cobwebs in my life. There are loads and loads of dirty laundry and almost always dishes in the sink. Sometimes my voice gets loud. Sometimes I quarrel with my husband. Sometimes my kid watches too much TV. But there is grace. Oh, there is grace. And there is mercy. There is forgiveness. And each day I pray, "Lord help me to be the wife and mommy you want me to be. Pick me up when I fall. Cover my mistakes with your love. Breathe your breath of life into the work of my hands. May I see what you see. Give me your perspective."