Saturday, January 06, 2007

prfection

I have a small, young perfectionist in my house. I've known it for a while, probably since she used to line her toys up along the edge of the bed. Or maybe it was when, as a toddler, she would cry when she spilled something on her shirt. Or perhaps it was when she started having tantrums because her pants were wrinkled.

Being a perfectionist can be a hard job. When making a mistake sends you over the edge, any new endeavor can be threatening. So I was surprised that my 4-year old perfectionist insisted on skating around the rink on her own after only 5 minutes of holding my hand. She went out there like a trooper and skated proudly around a couple more times.

Then she fell.

She wasn't hurt, but she was done.

"I'm no good at this, Mommy. I fell down. Take my saktes off me."

I wanted to hold her and love on her and tell her what a narrow life she will have if she never lets herself fail. But I gave her a quick kiss and said, " Let's go around again. I'll hold your hand if you want."

No body's perfect, honey. No matter how hard we try.

And that's where our spiritual awakening begins.

1 comment:

Papa John said...

To become prfect, ya gotta practice prfect. The wee lassie's prfect Papa J. knows this. He also knows the frustration of unprfection, nonprfection, and imprfection. Following Jesus is the only way to appear PERFECT to the Father of us all. The rest of the time we try to be prfect and that's a good thing too.