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Personal Peace: Progress Not Perfection

This morning there was an email exchange between my co-workers, Ed and Tamie about a glitch in the Daily Prayable. I got the cc. Tamie reminded Ed that it’s better to strive for progress, not perfection. Exactly the right approach in technology, as well as in parenting.

My son Craig was not a great student when he was in school. I did the usual parent patrol stuff:  I nagged him about his homework. One day I checked over his math assignment that was due the next day. It was obvious he hurried through it, and he didn’t have a clue how to divide fractions. When I pointed out that every answer was incorrect, he told me: “My teacher didn’t say we have to do it right, she just said we have to do it.” What a perfect example of a child, ahead of his time, in understanding the value of progress not perfection!

I love the parents who have perfect children. You know them; you’ve sat next to them in a restaurant when your kid is stacking the creamers and yelling, “Bulls-eye!” as he knocks ‘em down with a spit-ball. Perfect parents give birth to perfect children who never use their straw wrappers as projectile weapons when out dining in public.

There’s a hilarious mom from Texas who has a blog: The Mother’s Network. She shrewdly observes that mothers of perfect children rarely have more than one, only child. How true! I know two pompous parents who have snickered at the behavior of my brood of four, for years. Their ivy-league educated son wore pressed and creased slacks and button down collared shirts all through high school. He was not normal, but he sure was perfect. Only child? Check.

So how does striving for progress beat perfection? It motivates us to tackle a challenge that would otherwise be overwhelming. I have a vision of a peaceful world where “swords have been turned into ploughshares.” Well maybe not farming implements exactly… but a world where there is no need for weapons, because there is no war.

I figure I’m making progress, one prayer at a time. When I pray, my soul is at peace. It’s a lot like a good hot shower. It lasts throughout the day, but I need to take another one tomorrow. So I add daily prayer and walk around 24/7 with a peaceful soul that is felt by my children and our entire family. It's peace-giving parenting at its best. When I’m at peace, my family is at peace. When families are at peace, communities are at peace. When communities are at peace, the world is at peace.

It’s time for a shameless plug. Speaking of souls at peace, Prayables has a brand new book, Personal Peace: Prayers for Women of all Faiths.  Please buy it NOW! Enjoy a copy for yourself, buy it for others and support Prayables.com. The revenue from book sales goes back into the big beautiful movement of bringing more pray to a woman’s day!

Peacemakers

Blessed are those who
speak the words that calm us,
quiet us, and bring us back to you.
Blessed are those who,
with a look or a touch,
still the fear that leads to hate.

Oh, help me to be
one of your peacemakers.
Where there is strife,
Help me bring calm.
Where there is pain,
Help me bring healing.

As I go through my day
and make the world a better place,
help me reflect Your light, Your love,
and Your ever-present wisdom.

-Sue Bradford Edwards