Love Covers a Multitude of Sins

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Most of you know, I am a mother of three. Those who only know me from afar have told me how they feel I am such a good mom. I always think to myself, "If you only knew."

I mean I AM a good mom (at least compared to the women I see on the news), and my children love me like crazy. However, I mess up a lot. I love my children the best I can with the tools I’ve been given, but I am not always nice. In fact...I'm just going to spill it. I often threaten my kids, telling them I will punch them in the throat.

Go ahead, judge me.

Really, I have always said it jokingly, because Lord knows, that is something I would NEVER do. But I tell you the truth, I have pictured doing it. I call it Imagination Therapy. Be honest. You have pictured throwing one of your kids out of a window when they have back talked or said something disrespectful. IT'S OKAY. It doesn't mean you're a bad parent. It's one thing to imagine it, and quite another to not know where that boundary line is, and take anger and frustration out on your child in real life. And please know I am not making light of real abuse.

I think of how many times my Heavenly Father probably gets frustrated with me and how grateful I am for His mercy. Thank you God for not throat punching me when I mess up.

“But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.” Ephesians‬ ‭2:4-5‬ ‭NIV‬‬

The reason I am sharing this is I don't want you to feel alone in your "shortcomings." Parenting is really hard. Life is really hard. We need to share our struggles with each other. If we all shared our "crazy," we would realize we are not alone in our struggles. And some things we classify as "crazy stuff we would never tell anyone," are actually things most people struggle with every day. I know you have someone in mind you think is the perfect parent or has a perfect life. They have it all together right? Wrong. They are crying and rocking in a corner right now! 😉

Now that I am only 3 years away from an empty nest, I look back on our family’s time together and thank God for all of the lessons we have learned. The most important thing I have done as a parent, and as a human for that matter, is to pray the Lord makes up for all of my shortcomings. I love the best I can, then continue to pray He fills in the gaps where I fail.

Years ago, during a family photo session, I was caught on camera threatening to "strike" my son. I made our photographer friend promise he would never show it to anyone, but I'm going to pull it out of the closet for you. I know. It looks really bad. But, if you know my son, you know he is DRA-MA-TIC. Nevertheless, I obviously do not love perfectly the way my heavenly Father does. I mess up every single day, but I love my children.....deeply. They are amazing people.

1 Peter 3:18 says, "Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins." Ain't that the truth!

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