Copy-Cat
One of my least favorite games to play in motherhood is copy-cat. I realize it's an unpopular opinion to have "least favorites" in mama life (oops!) but let's be honest, we all do. And copy-cat is the literal worst.
However, this game is also a wonderful vessel for serving up some humble pie where mom just has to eat it and swallow the pride.
On the way home from the dentist, my middle son played the longest game of copy-cat in the history of copy-cat and he didn't break it no matter how hard I tried.
I should have just kept silent and turned up some Shine-FM a little louder. That was my first mistake.
But then I heard him saying "little sucker" and might have almost thrown up in my mouth...
Grayson Jon! Why are you saying that ... we don't say sucker ... unless it's a lollipop ... or, well, I have no idea.
And I had zero clue what I had said that he was repeating until he very gracefully told me, and it may or may not have had to do with another driver on the road, and I may have had to ask for some good ol' forgiveness.
Sigh.
The rest of the drive home was quite good. How? When we let ourselves learn from what the world or social media likes to dub "mama fails"instead of just crawling into a pity party hole of ruining our children's lives, we get to eat some spiritual fruit and taste heavenly blessings, instead of just wallowing in our mistakes.
In that little sucker moment, I realized again that my entire mamahood is a game of copy-cat. That fact can feel absolutely daunting if I allow it, but if I remember the get-tos and completely trust that their Heavenly Father has their best in mind regardless of my imperfect mothering, there is so much to look forward to and I'm thankful to be a part of it!
My current get to in 2022 came from my study tool, The Bible Recap, where the author has repeatedly said...
"God...He's where the joy is!"
And every day, I get to constantly redirect my kiddos focus, perspective, small moments, disappointments, laughter, aha realizations to Joy itself -- Jesus!
If I copied the world like I often want to (and often stink-up doing) my sons get a mama who thinks she can find her fullest joy in temporal things: the experience of a latte, the 'just right' workout, a venting session with a girlfriend, the much needed moms' night out, a date-night in with some connect time with hubby, a quiet bath where no one can touch or talk to me, a glass of white wine at the end of a long week, some fantastic therapy, or Target therapy for that matter ...
But those places aren't where the joy is.
Those places just distract me from doing the sometimes hard work, or at least the self-pruning, of recognizing where my deepest need and deepest treasure and steadfast joy lies ... in an unfailing, unmatched Jesus. Who satisfies even the weariest hour, the crummiest minutes, or the darkest seasons.
And when I choose them over Him,
I'm pretty much the little sucker.
My prayer is that as I continue to choose Jesus (and then praise Him for all the other gracious gifts named above), they'll continue to find their joy beyond earth's happy things or fleeting fixes, and ground down in His goodness everlasting.
Xo copy-cat mamas ... keep up the good work!
