Balancing Act

I love to do a lot of different things. I love to go to ballgames. I love to play in the yard with my kids. I love to play golf. I love to water ski. I love to craft. I love to jog. I love to throw parties. But, I HATE to cook. I'm not lazy, I just don't like cooking. If I cook three times a week I feel like I have really accomplished something special!! I always joke (although it's kind of true!) that my cooking rotation always starts with spaghetti. So, I cook spaghetti on a Monday, don't cook again for three weeks, and, SURPRISE, we have spaghetti again!

My point is that we all have talents. We all have things that make us happy and things that we like to do. To be a good mom, you don't have to be able to do everything. And, you especially don't have to be awesome at everything. You can pick and choose what you're good at and put your time and effort into those things. The other things have to be done, but if you don't like to cook, you don't have to worry about making a new recipe perfectly every night! It's okay to cook fish sticks or order a pizza sometimes!! If you don't like to craft, you don't have to! If you can't sew, don't worry about it! There are very talented crafters and seamstresses on Etsy that would love for you to buy their handmade dresses and hair bows!!

Social media sites like Pinterest and Facebook sometimes make us feel like we're not good enough. That we should be able to cook picture worthy suppers and have craft time with our kids every night, make our own clothes and laundry detergent, and make a snack or treat bag for EVERY occasion.  In truth, SOME moms are good at cooking fabulous suppers, SOME moms are good at crafting, SOME moms can easily make cute printables for treat bags.

Romans 12:6-8 says, "Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly: if prophecy, according to the proportion of his faith; if service, in his serving; or he who teaches, in his teaching; or he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness." We need to pick one thing or even a few things that we're good at and do those. It's too easy to get down on yourself because you didn't make the cutest Halloween costume or send the most creative Valentine treat! But, NONE of these things matter to our kids. We're supermom to them, no matter what! They will love us unconditionally even if the only thing we ever cook for them is spaghetti!

Even more important than our children's approval, is the fact that God doesn't care about any of these things. God wants us to have a relationship with Him, teach our kids to love Him, and serve others so that they can see His love through us. He's given each of us specific talents to be used for HIS glory, not for the approval of the world (or other moms!)