You Don't Have to Be Good at Being Good

I am meditating on these good thoughts tonight, coming from this great website

"Of course, this side of heaven we will not do perfectly. Harsh words will be spoken, patience will wear thin. Frazzled mothers will act frazzled. And when this happens, our own sinfulness does not detract from the power of the gospel, it illustrates why we need it. Do not use your own mistakes as an excuse to wallow about what a bad mother you are. Repent, seek forgiveness, get it right, and move on. Believe. Be forgiven. Extend that forgiveness, that belief, that joy, to your children."

Wow, isn't that good? I know it, I fail everyday, many times a day. I am a godly mom by the grace of God, but I am a mom who fails, harsh words and thin patience. But it doesn't stop there does it? Oh, Amen!!! It does not!!!

As a mom, my greatest joy would be to see my kids love and serve Jesus for all of their days!! Oh, how I want that!! It is to that end that I pray and to that end I plan my days with them, teaching them Scripture and telling them about Christ.

But I do find that what displays the gospel so often to those five little people is my shortcomings. It is then that they see, it isn't about what WE do, but what He has done. When I sin, in whatever way it may be, it is then that they see the need for the Savior. MY need for Jesus!! Sure, I can point them to Christ when I am not sinning and I should and I do, but when I have failed, that is when they see, this is not about Mommy being so good, it is about Jesus...
The Jesus of the Bible, the Jesus of The Jesus Storybook Bible.
I want to proclaim to my children this from this treasured book :
"'It's not about keeping rules?' Paul told people. 'You don't have to be good at being good for God to love you. You just have to believe what Jesus has done and follow him. Because it's not about trying, it's about trusting. It's not about rules, it's about Grace: God's free gift--that cost him everything' What had happened to Paul? He met Jesus."

I am a recovering perfectionist, everyday struggling to remember, it's not about what I can do, it's about what He has already done. Let me teach my children this, the gospel, that Jesus came to Redeem. We can't redeem ourselves. Let me not teach them that it is their works that make God love them, or me. And let ME forsake wallowing my sins, repent and share the gospel of Christ with the little ones in my home, and tell them that
"Jesus paid it all,
All to Him I owe,
Sin had left a crimson stain,
HE washed it white as snow!!
~ So that they may know the Jesus I know, the Jesus of Grace, Forgiveness and Love. Jesus Christ, our only hope!!!