Store Bought Biscuits

 

You know I’m not travelling along well if you see store bought biscuits in the packed lunches at my house.

I’ve always endeavoured to make biscuits, cakes or slices, for morning tea and with allergies and food intolerance’s in our house it was often out of necessity rather than design.

But I also like the idea of making sweet treats, just as my own mother did for us, because I enjoy it. Not the actual baking I have to admit, but more the reactions when the kids, or hubby, smell what’s cooking or are surprised at finding their favourite baked good in their lunch boxes.

Sometimes though, life can become overwhelming.

I’m a mother of 5 under 9 now, and very happy to be so. But I can assure you that there are times when baking a cake or slice is not on the cards.

In that fog of fatigue in the wake of a newborn’s arrival, or the busyness of commitments and the scourge of sickness baking goes right out the window.

And to be honest, feelings of guilt descend. Adding store bought biscuits to my trolley feels dirty somehow, that I’m failing my family in some way because I’m not fulfilling my role to the best of my ability.

Maybe for you it’s not the absence of home baked goods in lunches. It might be the pile of dirty washing that still hasn’t made it into the machine, or hubby ironing his work uniforms himself because you haven’t gotten around to them yet.

We all have our litmus test of how successful we are in our vocation. But we’re all measuring it incorrectly.

It doesn’t matter if we send store bought biscuits in for lunch, or have the ironing board set up permanently in our living area so that we can iron what we need as we’re getting dressed. It doesn’t matter if we arrive home after a long and gruelling day to find the mess of breakfast still unclear.

These are not the standards by which to measure yourself as a wife and mother.

Because, frankly, you cannot accurately measure yourself anyway. Leave that to God.

He’s not asking you to be perfect, to tick every box on your checklist for the perfect mum. He’s not even asking you to be the perfect mum or even an extraordinary one.

He’s asking you to be you. To do your best. Even if you do your best and it seems like you’ve failed, and here in particular I’m talking to those mums whose adult children do not practice the faith you so earnestly tried to pass on, you’ve done what He asked you to do.

God doesn’t measure by worldly standards, or yours.

So, give yourself a break. Lower your expectations to a healthy level and trust in God when things are not going as well as you’d like.

Store bought biscuits or not, do your best and let God do the rest.

 

Originally posted 2017-03-06 02:37:03.