I opened Roy Lessin’s book Today is Your Best Day the other morning and these words jumped out at me:
Today is your best day because you can grow a little more in your faith, a little more in your maturity, and a little more in your intimacy with Jesus.
Hmm. A little more. Reading that reminded me how often I want more from myself when it comes to my faith and maturity: more wisdom, more discipline, more knowledge, more belief, more patience… I could go on and on. I tend to expect a lot from myself and sometimes I get caught in the lie that God looks for perfection.
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This summer, I have two healthy cherry tomato plants growing in my garden, despite the fact that I didn’t plant them and I’ve done nothing to make them grow.
Long after they started to grow, my daughter heard me talking about these plants, and she innocently said, “I planted them.”
What?
With a shrug, she said, “I planted two tomatoes last year.”
Apparently, not knowing if they would grow, she took two tomatoes from last year’s plant and buried them. Not seeds, but whole tomatoes.
I thought the extreme temps and very little rain would be the end of them, but my husband started watering them and they continued to grow.
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My head spins, temples pound as I hear that three-letter word for the umpteenth time:
“Why?!?”
Before becoming a parent, I vowed to always respond honestly. I was never going to say “Because I said so.” No, I was going to take the time to reply wholeheartedly before they started looking for why’s answer elsewhere.
Keep in mind, this was before I was truly introduced to the age of four and fully grasped what children were capable of.
And I gave this day my very best shot. I went round and round, answering the same question multiple ways. My words few, my answers as honest as I thought he was capable of understanding.
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Summer is just about over and the kiddos will begin school again in about five weeks. I will have a 4th grader attending public school, a 7th grader who I will be homeschooling while working full-time (called and a little crazy), and a “home-schooled with a tutor” senior who will finish high school at the end of the first quarter (just a few months behind his class).
As a full-time working mom with a husband on unemployment, summer did not afford us a vacation to “get away from it all”. Life kept going, just as it was before summer. School, work, “training them up in the way they should go”.
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I am a plant killer.
It’s true. Home Depot should have a wanted poster up in the garden center with my picture on it – reward money being offered for my capture. My husband keeps encouraging me to buy plastic greenery, but I love real plants. And so the cycle of buy them, kill them, buy them, kill them continues.
Imagine my joy when I walked into my kitchen one day and noticed a tiny splash of purple. My African violet that had not bloomed in years finally had one happy cluster of petals. I smiled and thanked the Lord. But as soon as the thank you for the unexpected flower passed my lips, an unexpected question popped into my mind.
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