Most everyone has the perfect Easter celebration all worked out in their mind’s eye. Some envision well-behaved children dressed in their Sunday best, gathered around the dining room table, hands folded and ready to say grace. Others’ hearts skip a beat when they see their children respectfully taking turns as they dip their eggs into the brightly colored neon PAAS water. Perhaps you too are blissfully thinking of all the angelic giggles & toothless smiles as your kids run around the yard looking for candy-filled plastic eggs that you had hidden just minutes before.
Does it ever feel like your perfect holiday dreams and plans always turn into a nightmare instead?
Question: Are you looking to create perfection or a loving memory? That may be part of the issue if you find yourself constantly comparing yourself to friends’ (or distant acquaintances) lives on Facebook, longing to have a life as exciting as theirs looks. Or maybe you’re constantly digging online trying to find the most creative ideas and projects – trying to prove that this next holiday, vacation, birthday party, etc. is going to be the best one your family has EVER had. But maybe it ends up looking more like a big Pinterest fail instead.
I think we all want the perfect “Hallmark Movie” Easter experience. But more than that, it’s important to remember that if we are going to have a peace-filled life and family, we can’t expect perfection from flawed human beings…including ourselves.
Here’s a bonafide life guarantee: things will always go wrong.
Spiral-honey hams will burn, eggs will crack, colored water will spill, people will make wrong choices, and kids will get cranky when they are tired. When you release your grip of demanding perfection out of people, it allows them the freedom to live free from the fear of messing up. Isn’t this the very same grace you want to receive when you make a wrong turn?
The cool thing is that we can decide in advance how we are going to respond when things do not turn out the way we planned. I’ve decided to just shrug my shoulders and laugh off the inevitable imperfections of life instead of getting angry and bent out of shape. For it is in those times that we are making the conscious choice to leave our family a legacy of loving and kind memories, instead of everyone reeling in a wake of selfish frustration and disappointment.
So this Easter, why not choose to embrace the beautiful imperfection of life?
Just as Jesus embraced our brokenness and imperfection, my hope is that we can extend the very same compassion and kindness towards those that He has entrusted into our care.
Remember…YOU are LOVED!
