Recently I was listening to a podcast about how we often accuse ourselves of being totally incapable of a task or a grand master. We leave no room for the in between. Let’s take, for example, crafting. We can feel on top of the world with our Pinterest perfect springtime wreaths or feel like a complete failure for the wreath that falls apart the minute you hung it on the door. We feel like we should never even try. The extremes give us a distorted sense of victory or a deep sense of rejection.
For women, it can be difficult to settle into the gray spaces when we are surrounded by a world of women who look like they are ROCKING at everything. Newsflash! They aren’t. Like you, they are knee deep in piles of laundry, baffled as to how to keep the sink shiny white, and trying to pursue their passions while serving their families well. It can be hard to find the place where we might not be awesome at something, but at the same time admit we aren’t complete losers. We are learners. As an adult it can feel weird to continually be a student but it’s a great way to live.
As we age we are (un)pleasantly surprised about how little we know about life. There is still so much to learn.
Rather than swinging the pendulum from left to right, feeling on top of the world or feeling like you stink at life, I propose another way. I propose we accept that we are learning; journeying through our days, our jobs, our passions, our love lives, and our motherhood. We are learning.
In her book Jesus Feminist, Sarah Bessey writes,
“I won’t desecrate beauty with cynicism anymore. I won’t confuse critical thinking with a critical spirit, and I will practice, painfully, over and over, patience and peace until my gentle answers turn away even my own wrath… I will simply try again.”
I think we can do this. I think we can accept where we are while fighting for the dreams or ideas that beat in our heart. It’s contentment at it’s best. We keep on trucking. We can all get frustrated by the lack of growth or change we believed we would have by now. It’s too easy to beat ourselves up when the diet doesn’t work out, when the business feels like a blunder, or like we can’t keep up with the needs of our house or family.
The truth is you will not be swindled out of your own life. Your life is beautiful, precious, hard, and messy. When you allow yourself to be imperfect EVERYONE wins. Your soul wins as well as the souls around you.
The next time you feel like a boss that is unstoppable, that’s ok, but if two days later you don’t want to get out of bed because you can’t face your own life then we chances are we have a problem. Jump off that pendulum. Accept the imperfection. Try and try again.
In the hunt for wisdom, a wisdom to manage our own crazy lives, I offer you this…
In Colossians chapter 2, the Apostle Paul writes concerning the church in Laodicea, telling us,
“My goal is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”
All of the wisdom we need to hike through this life is hidden in Jesus. When you feel like it’s all too much remember he is for you, he will lead you, and he will love you. This I know is true. Let us learn to walk in his ways.
For more on this topic check out for when you feel like not enough or what every woman often forgets in her faith journey.
For a little bit more gas in the tank check out encouragement for the dumpy days. To access pop over to my free resources.