Skip to main content

Boogers

My family and I were at my sister's house. My brother-in-law came down the stairs asking, "Who put boogers on my wall?" Since his kids are a bit older than mine, one could assume the culprit was one of the Fish boys. Of course, no one fessed up, but we all knew: one of my kids used the wall as a tissue. Welcome to the #boymom life.

I flashed back to the booger incident this morning when I was straightening up one of the boy's rooms. I looked over on the wall under the window and there it was: a booger. I mean. Seriously. One cannot get up and grab a Kleenex? Is that too hard? I guess so.

I remember a friend who knew me well told me I was going to have to get used to having dirty dishes in the sink when I got pregnant with our third child. There is a year between our second and third and she knew the lifestyle I was currently living wasn't going to be a reality once that third baby was born. In my crazy OCD mind, I thought surely I would be able to handle three boys under four and keeping a house clean. I was a stay-at-home mom. What else was I going to do with my day?

Life got busy once number three came along. The boys needed me more than the dishes and my perfectly tidy house was crumbling. All my life I have lived in order. Organization and cleanliness are a drug for me. Give me vacuum lines in the carpet and perfectly coiffed pillows and you've made my day. Motherhood, however, teaches you that there's more to life than a clean kitchen.

The boogers on the wall are a reminder that life needs to be lived. Perfection is not a reality. I can get caught up in organizing the playroom missing out on an opportunity to spend with my family or friends.

I thought when we moved into this house the newness would stay forever. It was a clean slate. New walls. New baseboards. Pee-free bathrooms. I was convinced the house would stay in its pristine condition. And then I woke up.

The reality is that there will be boogers on the walls, Legos on the ground, and unmade beds. I will find Nerf darts on all the out-of-reach ledges forever there becoming home decor.

I have had to embrace the boogers and the mess learning that perfection is not an option.

God isn't calling me to perfection in my home or elsewhere. He is calling me to life. What matters is a life surrendered to Jesus not folded laundry in its proper place.

"until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ." Ephesians 4:13

"The Rock! His work is perfect, For all His ways are just; A God of faithfulness and without injustice, Righteous and upright is He." Deuteronomy 32:4

Perfection comes thru Christ and Christ alone. Boogers on the wall remind me that chasing after earthly perfection is like chasing after unicorns. It just doesn't exist. But, BUT, there is hope and perfection in Jesus. That's where I reconcile my perfectionist tendencies...in Christ alone.

From now on, when I see boogers on the wall, I'll remember how perfect my life actually is!

Love & Blessings,
Meg

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Notoriety

Teenage Mother A donkey owner Simon of Cyrene Who are these people? I am sure you can figure out the first one: Mary the mother of Jesus. Who are the others and what do all three of these people have in common? They all did extraordinary things but, for the most part, went unseen. Do you ever feel unseen? Undervalued? I do. I try not to get caught up in that space, but I find myself there too often. While Mary is infamous today, she wasn't when she brought the King into this world. She was a teenager who gave birth in a barn. She was an outcast who was pregnant but not married. She told of an unbelievable story involving an angel, a Spirit, and a Savior who was going to save the world. Could you even imagine? It's easy for us to be in awe of Mary. We know the whole story. She didn't. And neither did the people around her. She had to live it. To top it all off, she had to watch her beloved son die a gruesome death. Talk about feeling unseen and undervalued. She faithfu...

Don't Lose You

When Jackson was a baby, I would hop into my car on my lunch break and rush to his day care to see him. I had thirty minutes with my baby and I needed every last second. I was a mess of a new mom and had a really hard time leaving him everyday. I was caught in the conundrum of loving teaching with all that I was and loving being a mom desperately wanting to stay home. I established a neat relationship with Jack's care-takers. They were a little older than me and much wiser. They will never fully know how appreciative I am for their advice and comfort during those beginning moments as a mama. When I decided to leave my teaching career and move halfway across the country to do so, they gave me a piece of advice that I didn't take seriously initially but now hold dear. They told me I had to find something for me. They watched me finish my master's that year and knew I was the type that needed to be doing. They recognized that I was about to enter a season where I had to hold...

The Promise Land

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11 We Christians like this verse; like A LOT. We have it written all over the place. We hang this verse up in our home and tattoo it to our bodies. Jeremiah 29:11 is everyone's life verse. I mean, who doesn't want to rest in knowing the God has a plan for our life; especially when that plan includes safety and prosperity. Even if I didn't believe in God, I would hold onto this verse. What if, however, we have been misinterpreting this verse all these years? This life, the here and the now, we like it. Well, some of us probably want to throw this life in the trash like a rough draft and have a do-over. But, for the most part, we hold onto this life for dear life. It is all we know. It can be scary to think of anything else. Because of this, we go all in even when the cards we are dealt are bad. Thi...