God Is Perfect

This is a post for my blog audience.  I want you to know that I promise that one day my boys will know that God is perfect.  Right now, however, it's more important that Gabe learn that it's okay to be imperfect.  He's an extremely perceptive child.  And he likes things to be perfect.

I learned recently just how important my role is in helping him to accept imperfection.  You see, last month I hung some Christmas lights around our pool fence.  About a week after putting them up, some of the lights on one of the strings stopped working.  Gabe, of course, was the first one to notice the broken lights.  One day when were playing outside, I tried to fix them; but I couldn't figure out what was wrong.  The thought of going back to Home Depot to buy more lights was just so unappealing (I'd already made so many trips to buy the lights, extension cords, etc.), so I just decided that it was okay that not all of the lights worked.  At that time, I had absolutely no idea just how tuned-in Gabe was to this issue.

When he mentioned the broken lights, I just told him that I couldn't figure out what was wrong, but that it was okay that they weren't working.  I told him that there were enough working lights around the fence, and that everything was still beautiful.  A couple of weeks went by.  There was no more discussion of the lights.  A few nights before Christmas, out of the blue Gabe said to me, "Mom, it's okay that not all of the lights on the fence work.  It's still beautiful."  At that moment, I felt so thankful that I hadn't rushed off to the store to replace the lights (like I'd normally do).  I'm assuming that my ability to relax with the broken lights allowed Gabe to do the same.

And then last weekend when we were painting with water colors, Gabe told me a story about how one of his classmates ate paint when they were using paints one day at school.  I asked him if the teacher was nervous when the student ate the paint, and he said that she was.  I then asked if he felt scared about it.  He said:

"I didn't feel scared.  I was too busy trying to make my picture look perfect."

So, for now, I believe that even God needs to model imperfection.  Thank you for your understanding.