God doesn't need you to be perfect

I'm sitting at the kitchen table this morning and beating my head against it. This morning has been down right awful. Joseph has been awake since 4:30. He just finished breakfast because I couldn't muster up the energy to get off the couch. He's now 'decorating' the window with a highlighter and placing his John Hancock on the wall with a pen. And here I sit, broken down and at the end of myself. AND IT'S ONLY 8:05 AM!

I can't even go on facebook to see the 'perfect facebook mom' status's or attempt to write anything encouraging. How do I encourage other people when I don't have my own junk together? How am I supposed to be a leader of any kind when I can't even manage to remember wipe for the diaper bag? How am I supposed to assist a person to overcome their biggest temptation when I can't even go one day without failing myself?

I had a discussion with a fellow Christian mom about these things. I posted a post last night about my son, who is almost 2, who says less than 5 words. I've worked in child care for a LONG time and I know that kids are different. But he's MY son. He should be so much more advanced in language than this. And yet, I'm still freaking out about it. Then it hit me.

God doesn't want me to be perceived as someone who has it all together. He wants me to be authentic. He wants me to be real. He wants me to be honest. He wants me to be unafraid to tell you that I took the trash out and saw maggots in the trash can and cried about it. He wants me to be able to tell you that I failed yesterday at temptation BIG TIME. He wants me to be able to tell you these things because no one is going to benefit from me acting like I have it all together.

I'm a mess. I have to leave for work in 20 minutes and I didn't wash my hair. I didn't do my make up. And I'm highly thinking about changing my clothes for the 12th time in the last 30 minutes. We have come to a point in Christianity that we are too worried about what others think about us that we can't be honest anymore. We have to hide behind this fake curtain of misperceptions and perfection. We act like we have it all together. WE DON'T! We are too afraid to be judged by our actions and short comings that we aren't willing to get help anymore. We aren't willing to be forward and just say, HEY I NEED HELP WITH THIS!

With technology sky rocketing, we have become less and less social because we can do it all on 'social media.' For heaven's sake. I can go on facebook or instagram and see the perfect life of a friend of mine and know that she is completely broken down inside. But hey, she's smiling in her pictures life must be grand. When are we going to wake up and just be honest with each other again?