Learning from my daughter

Although the title of this blog is "Mother Knows Best", I feel as though this week, I know nothing. I've been impatient, frustrated, and at times just downright crabby. So, I feel that hardly gives me the title of knowing "Best". We've been repainting and redecorating our condo and I think that's the main source of my frustration. I've made our condo into a two-year-old's disaster area, and have no one but myself to blame. Sigh. Despite the hard week, I've learned so many lessons, so I do see the beauty in the disaster.
I've learned not to take parenting too seriously. Yes, it's a huge job, and a great responsibility from God, but it's fun, and there's a huge learning curve. One day my husband left late for work so I could find my focus. I took a bath, and went underwater so my ears would plug and I wouldn't be able to hear anything and yes, I found my focus there. What I do as a mom to two beautiful children is like a bright, colorful canvas. A drab color like a bad day doesn't make the canvas ugly, it makes the big picture. Those good days have a lot more beautiful colors on there than the bad ones.
My other lesson that I've really let sink in is how a two-year-old can teach forgiveness. I remember a decade ago when I read C.S. Lewis explain forgiveness. He said that it's so easy to forgive ourselves when we wrong others, we rationalize and give ourselves the benefit of the doubt. Needless to say, I rarely do that for others. My daughter though, is like the perfect picture of forgiveness. When I've used tone to tell her to do something, and I apologize, she smiles at me with the sweetest glow. It's like she has no idea what a grudge is, and I envy that.