Thursday, August 20, 2009

Perfection

Ok, I started this post trying to sound all profound and wordy...and then I realized it was completely counterproductive to the point I am trying to make in today's post. So I am just going to blither and blather--try to keep up!


I think women--in general-- are too hard on themselves. We struggle to keep our homes in perfect order, read recipe books and websites and magazines until we are blurred with tsps, dices, and boils just so we can keep our family intriguied by our culinary skills. We are too harsh on ourselves when we look in the mirror and see perhaps a little more around the hips, or maybe we aren't pleased with our hair, nails, skin... it is endless.

After realizing that we just canNOT do it all, we beat ourselves up over it because clearly there are women out there who can do it all, and don't even break a sweat. So there must be something wrong with us since we can't keep up--right? Wrong.

I am not an organizing queen. I can beat myself up over it, or let someone else bring me down about it, or I can accept it, and look at ways to adapt to it.

I faltered on the gym routine. It is far too easy to grab a cup of joe and hit goodwill or savers with Brian in search of some good books or pottery. I do want to be in better shape, in the mean time, I am not going to mentally berate myself for not being a gym member nazi.

There are days when I just shut down. The boys have argued too much, or their rooms frighten me to the point of feeling overwhelmed, or I stress myself over the fact that my husband and I don't have Donald Trump's money. And those are the days that I look in the mirror and dislike what I see. It doesn't matter how many times I open my closet or dresser drawers-NOTHING will look good on me. I can't seem to do ot say anything right, so why bother?

It is a viscious cycle that women get in--men do too I'm sure, but I don't have experience with that so I can't blog about it!

So no, my life is not perfect. I have many many many flaws that I can hold myself hostage over--OR I can think about the wonderful things in my life. I choose to do that. Not that there aren't days that I just don't want to get out of bed (and that is OK) or days that I just don't feel as though I can hold a candle to the other women around me...but sometimes just knowing that it is simply "one of those days" and "this too shall pass" is enough to help me get out of the funk. And even if I don't get out of that funk...that is OK.

You know, cuz I'm good enough, I'm smart enough and doggone it people like me!

3 comments:

Carrie said...

Thanks for the reminder...I needed that today. I had similar thoughts a few months ago and this is what I concluded (for what it's worth). Instead of embracing my life as a work of art, the way God does [Ephesians 2:10], I let the vain image in the mirror dictate who I am. As a case in point, after being up all night with a sick kid the first thing I see in the mirror is baggy eyes but what God sees is a mom who sacrificed a night of her own sleep to comfort a child in need. When I look in the mirror and see a saggy stomach, God sees a beautiful woman who He blessed with the gift to bare three children. My walk with God should be focused on how He views me, not how the world sees me.

MoJo said...

Thank you C! I appreciate you backing it up with a Bible message. You are absolutely right, my focus should be on how He views me...so glad to have you C!

Carrie said...

So glad to have you, too! Are you going to be back up this away again soon?