Great Expectations!

Have you ever seen something in your mind's eye and reality didn't quite turn out that way? How do you feel when your expectations aren't met. We all have high ideals in our minds and I know that my ideals...certainly aren't always met with reality. ESPECIALLY, when those ideals are in the hands of others' choices. I never realized how much of a controlling person I could be until I had children...and with those children, ideals about the way things should be (according to me, of course). I have to learn, daily, to give up some of that control and let my kids be who God made THEM to be instead of trying to fit them into Liza's mold.

This is a somewhat trivial example, but last week Libby had a birthday party to go to. With all the sickness in our household, we decided to just make a card. I had exactly how I thought it should look in my mind and it did NOT look exactly like the card that you see below. I couldn't believe how many times I had to stop, step back, assess whether it really made a difference in the big picture of life if she put the green squiggly on the heart or under the heart, and KEEP MY MOUTH SHUT!!!!

Wow! How often do I step on my children's toes and try to change them just because they don't fit my mold? What happened to God making us so fearful and so wonderful? Haven't I been taught all my life that God makes each one of us uniquely? Why is that so hard to accept? I learned a lesson about myself that day and I have been trying much harder to step back and assess whether what my children are doing is just a God given trait that I can smile and encourage them to grow...even if it seems a little "off" to me or whether they are truly doing something that needs corrected and weeded out. Dear Lord, give me the wisdom to know the difference between the things to correct and the things to let go...and give me the courage to correct what I need to in my children and the serenity to LET GO of those things that annoy me, but do not affect my children's character and integrity!