UnsupermommySample

Embracing Imperfection

I have to admit something: I’m not even perfect at being imperfect. Some days I still try really hard to be a supermommy. Sometimes I let my expectations morph into needs instead of keeping them submitted to God’s authority. I tend to let my desire to be a “good mom”—by my standards or the world's—become more important to me than my desire for God.

God is growing me and changing me through the process of motherhood. I’m not writing to you because I have it all figured out, but because I don’t. I can’t even embrace imperfection by my own strength. Sin is simply too twisty. It’s hard to nail down and it’s impossible to defeat by myself. The gospel is my lifeline every day, every moment. Without it, I am powerless, trapped in my own obsession with meeting expectations.

Imperfection may feel like failure, but it’s actually an opportunity for freedom. If we were perfect, the cross of Christ would be emptied of its power. Our failures, laid at the feet of the cross, are the starting place for God's power in our lives. There are simply far too many expectations for us to ever achieve perfection as a mom.

We will never be perfect moms; we can't change that. We can boast in our weaknesses as an opportunity for the power of Christ to rest on us. Plugging into God's superpower instead of your own ability is downright countercultural. Women are supposed to be empowered from inside of themselves. Our strength comes from our independence and confidence. When we can’t live by our own power, we feel like failures.

Dear Mommy, that's not God's way. God likes to use the unexpected—the small and the imperfect—to reflect the grandeur of his glory. He sent Jesus to be born in a manger. He chose Moses, the outcast Israelite, to lead his people to freedom. He made rough, uneducated fishermen his intimate companions. He selected Paul, the Christian-hater, to become the gospel-spreader. He chose you to be the best mom for your imperfect children. If you feel weak, imperfect, and unimportant, you are just the kind of person God wants to use as a vessel for displaying his power to the world.

The normal path of motherhood is to try to be a supermommy, but God flips it around. He creates strength from weakness. He redeems the imperfect. Let’s stop calling our weakness failure. Let’s start seeing it through God’s perspective: part of the process in receiving his grace and living in his strength. Let's embrace imperfection as unsupermommies serving a superpowered God.