I have served on faith-based women’s teams and was amused when I heard some of the young women, after a long day of being “mom\u201d to their young family, exclaim \u201cI\u2019m a hot mess!\u201d I\u2019ll admit I didn’t know what that meant but it did seem they were frazzled and welcomed being a part of a faith group where they could \u201cchill\u201d a while. I googled “hot mess”! It’s a state of extreme disarray; disheveled or unbalanced person, particularly one who is nevertheless still attractive! Aw! So I wasn\u2019t too far off when I saw them frazzled and beautiful!
I’m sure I could have said that about myself as a young mom. I dreamed of being the perfect mom and pastor’s wife. I wanted my “two” to be exemplary model children for others. But, they were normal kids who could act up and out just like the others. It perplexed me and I went down to the altar for prayer to be THAT mom and wife who merited the gold-star-winning, woman of the year. An older, wiser woman knelt down beside me, wrapped her loving arms around me and said, \u201cSweet girl, let go of your need for perfection. God just wants you to \u201cCome as you are\u201d \u2013 just keep coming to Him. He will turn what seems to be a mess into a beautiful message for others.” Oh, my! She had “read my mail” and my heart. I felt refreshed and assured that my kids and I were going to be okay \u2013 just as we were. Suddenly it seemed attainable to raise a couple of kids, keeping life in order, and everything running smoothly, happy and clean.
But, then I went home and life had its messy moments again. Some days, wife-ing and parenting is just a hot mess. It doesn\u2019t always go as planned. We get tired. When we\u2019ve finally figured out one stage, another begins. We look for someone, like my “church” friend to wrap their arms around us and tell us everything\u2019s gonna\u2019 be alright. \u201cYou\u2019re doing a good job.\u201d
We listen to accusing lies that we know are not from God, but play over and over in our minds, \u201ca good mom would never do that, why can\u2019t you get it together, why can\u2019t you be more like\u2026\u201d We start believing it to be the truth. The days seem so long. The ones when you\u2019ve had more than enough of being a chauffeur, or referee between the kids, or hearing \u201cmom\u201d every few seconds. And just when you hear a friend tell you she\u2019s headed with her hubby to a remote island for a week\u2026.
You stop and take a deep breath. You look into the eyes of these treasures who call you Mom\u2026who you love more than life itself\u2026and you realize how very blessed you are. And you notice not only the days have gone by, but some years have too. And suddenly you long for it to slow down. The \u201cAha\u201d moment happens and you realize that maybe you are doing it. Maybe you are living a dream that is the right one for you. And you breathe in God’s grace\u2026again. Because life was never meant to be perfect. Life was just meant to be lived. Hope arises. You let go of those high expectations of perfect bliss somewhere else.
You realize your “hot mess” isn’t really hot at all. It is a place of sweet life words found in the mess of the toys on the floor and fingerprints on the wall. Words of grace, straight from the heart of a joy-filled 5-year-old soul who knows what it is to live and to love. Love God, love your family, love yourself. So simple and so true. \u201cWherever you go, God goes with you.\u201d (Joshua 1:9) He is in our mess, in our imperfections, in our day to day, in the ordinary, in the times when no one else sees, or knows, or cares. He\u2019s there. With us. Perfect doesn\u2019t matter. It never did. And all the other stuff we stress and worry about, it doesn\u2019t really matter either. But love, it matters. He whispers His words of life and love over you today: \u201cGood job, Mom, I am with you. And, together\u2026..we\u2019re gonna rock this!
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I have served on faith-based women’s teams and was amused when I heard some of the young women, after a long day of being “mom\u201d to their young family, exclaim \u201cI\u2019m a hot mess!\u201d I\u2019ll admit I didn’t know what that meant but it did seem they were frazzled and welcomed being a part of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10305,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13555],"tags":[13553,1907,2683,1083,3495,13548,13550,6619,13552,323,2217,4972,11207,13551,8291,13549,13554,3261],"class_list":["post-10304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hot-mess","tag-best-helper","tag-blessed","tag-chill","tag-church","tag-come-as-you-are","tag-come-to-god","tag-days-seem-long","tag-fingerprints","tag-frazzled","tag-grace","tag-hot-mess","tag-joshua","tag-message","tag-messy","tag-mom","tag-parenting","tag-toys","tag-treasures"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10304"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10304\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10308,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10304\/revisions\/10308"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}