Using My Mistakes

I am very good at parent guilt.

I can second-guess with the best of them.

I enjoy planning out our days (okay, okay, our years), and no matter what decisions I make, I’m usually half convinced they were the wrong ones.

Often I reassure myself with the notion that God can make up for my mistakes, that He can help my precious ones survive in spite of all the poor choices I make.

Yet recently I was struck in the heart with a very different perspective.

God can use my mistakes to make my girls into the women He wants them to be.

The idea that God already knows the mistakes I will make with my children and already has plans to use those mistakes to mold my girls into beautiful women who love Him and love others??

Well.

That is beyond beautiful.

It is grace. Pure grace.

It is a breath of freedom, a release from the lie that I have to parent perfectly in order for my children to grow up loving God. Ensuring the end for my children is not my job. My job is to be as faithful as I can and then to relax, being confident in God’s love for my girls.

A love that works for the best for them. A love that not only wants the best for them but is powerful enough to achieve that best.

It allows me to be present and just enjoy my girls without having to worry about their future.

Ah.

Let’s go play.

I am not sovereign over my children – God is. And God will use every aspect of my human parenting, even my sins and failures, to shape my children into who He desires them to be, for the sake of His kingdom. (Parenting is Your Highest Calling and Eight Other Myths… by Leslie Fields)