Making Peace with Good Enough

This weekend we've got our five kids plus two nephews. That's six boys under age nine in a 1400 square foot house, in case you were wondering. Thankfully we've got an amazing five acres of woods, and I sent them all outside early. They'll hopefully stay out until lunch. The din of their chatter and the click, click, clicking of their toy guns might send me over the edge. I had to iron some things out within myself when they were too excited to finish their dinners, too excited to fall asleep, and too excited to stay quiet until the mandatory 7 am wake up call this morning.

As I made whole wheat cinnamon rolls for the kids and a gallon of coffee for myself this morning, I felt a little guilty serving a sugary breakfast to them and even worse that I planned on eating some of the homemade treat, myself.

Then it all came together.

Spirited children are good, whole wheat is good, children learning to control a weapon and control themselves is good. They've slept, eaten, and now they'll spend their day in the great outdoors. Its all very good.

I struggle with relinquishing control of my kids. I want for them what I think is best. Its best that children don't make a nuisance of themselves, that they eat healthy foods, learn to finish what food they've been given, sleep when I say to sleep and rise when I say to rise.  But what I've come to realize is that I can't always force a child to be what I think they should be. I've got to learn to acknowledge the good and encourage my children to want what is best. I say, "I won't force you to sleep or to pray, but what I will do is train you to lay quietly without talking when it comes time to sleep, and kneel when your family kneels. So I train for good habits of obedience, and pray they will grow to want what is best instead of settling for what is not bad.

Training my own mind and the habits that flow out of it has become quite a theme in my life. Almost every time I am having an issue with another person, I look in the mirror and find that its actually myself that needs adjusted.

My diet isn't going to be perfectly healthy. Sometimes there actually isn't time to work out. I used to run myself ragged thinking that ideally the house would be tidy most of the time, and some of the time it wouldn't be. What is actually good is that, with kids, the house is messy most of the time and their are lovely moments of cleanliness.

So I keep my eyes on what I believe perfection is for myself and my home. And I plan and create an order that is always seeking for what is best. But for the sake of peace, joy, harmony, reason, and growth I've got to make friends with what is not bad. A home that loves the good yet works for what is best is an ideal atmosphere for everyone. Its a balance that we must strike within our private persons and in the office of motherhood.