Picture Perfect

As I sat out on the beach last week, oh how I wish I was back there now, I looked out at the horizon.  Where the ocean meets the sky forms the only perfect line in nature.  It is amazing to feel the power of God through the beauty of His creation.  To me, looking out at the wide sea seems to be perfect.  It offers peace and calm, even with the waves crashing on the shoreline, there is peace to be had at the serenity of the view.

I was reminded of this beautiful picture of perfectness today when I picked my oldest daughter up from preschool.  Now in her defense, she did not get a Grench  on her discipline chart, but she did disobey today.  I was devastated as the teacher told me of my child's misbehavior.  Not my child!  How could she do that?  What was she thinking?  As I asked her this, she responded with the inevitable, "I don't know mommy."  I wanted to scream and cry and question.  I wanted to know if I was doing something wrong as a mother.  But all I could think of was the fact she is a sinner, just like me and just like you, she sins everyday.  As much as I would love for her to be the star student that I know she is capable of being everyday, she is going to have a bad day.  I know I certainly have my bad days.  I know there are days I don't want to obey!

I have this image of being a picture perfect family, but we are not, nor will we ever be.  I want my girls to obey, but they are not going to all the time.  I want to not lose my temper with them when they do disobey, but I will also fail at this.  The phrase "there is none that doeth good, no, not one" is found three times in the Bible.  And Paul tells us in Romans 3:10 that "there is none righteous, no, not one:"  We are not going to be picture perfect, but thankfully we don't have to be.

The only perfect person to ever walk the earth was our Lord.  There was none before Him and will be none after Him, including our little angels.  As perfect as His creation is, man fell to the temptations of sin and will deal with the consequences until the return of Christ.  The good news is, He took all our sins on the cross with Him, and as perfect as He was, He bore our imperfectness.

Today's Verse
Psalms 9:10 "And they that know thy name will put their trust in thee:  for thou, Lord, hast not forsaken them that seek thee."

We must seek Him everyday.  Seek His forgiveness and be forever grateful for it.  We must teach our little ones to seek Him everyday as well.  Tell them daily of His love and free forgiveness.  Tell them of the way we can trust in Him always.

Thank you Lord, that we do not have to try so hard to be the picture perfect family, and thank you for not forsaking us.  Please allow our family to be at least a small glimpse to someone of how Your light can shine through imperfect people!