When Our Dirty Laundry Airs!

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. ¹⁰ For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong

2 Corinthians 12:9-10

To this day I can’t help but break out in laughter at the thought of what happened one day while teaching preschool.

I was just beginning my journey as a boy mom and was privileged to have several rambunctious boys in my class. Each Friday the children would take the sheets off their nap mats and stuff them in their backpacks for mom to wash over the weekend and when Monday came around the kiddos would take their freshly washed sheets from their bag for me to place back on their mats. 

This poor mama of a particular four-year-old boy had no idea what was in store as her son began to unpack his bag. As this little lanky brown-haired boy took the sheet out of his bag he quickly noticed something else attached to the sheet. Mom must have washed her son’s sheet with her delicates that weekend because that mama’s underwear was now being swung around the finger of her sweet boy who was all too eager to show off the extra item in his bag. As quickly as I could I ran over to him as he and now all of my class were giggling hysterically and, fighting my own laughter, told him to place his mom’s underwear back in his bag and return them to her that evening. 

I didn’t really see that mom for the rest of the school year. I’m sure she wanted to avoid making eye contact with the teacher who watched her son fling around her panties like a bandana won in a game of Capture The Flag!

As moms, we don’t like our dirty laundry aired.

We’d like what happens in the home to stay in the home. It would be great if everyone assumed we were what Instagram said we were. It would be awesome if others thought we actually made it to church without one harsh word to a family member. It would be really super if our kids would all just behave so it would look like we’re nailing this mother thing. But then, there is that moment when you see your son from across the room and he is not picking up the mama’s look you are throwing down. You are downright embarrassed by a child’s actions. You snap at your son in the store just to look up and see his Sunday school teacher staring at you from across the aisle. This perfect persona we worked so hard to acquire just vanishes and we are left with who we really are…a mom in need of grace!

Perfectionism is a grace killer.

If there is anything I am thankful for in my life it has been Grace! Grace is giving us what we don’t deserve, yes, but it is also what reaches down to us from the hand of God and allows us to be what we never could on our own. I’m so thankful that while it may surprise people that we moms aren’t perfect and don’t have it all together, that doesn’t surprise God at all! He remembers that we are dust (Psalms 103:14). Romans 3:23 already declares that we are all sinners. Nope, that’s not an excuse but it is good news! It’s good news because God already planned for our times of failure and he gifted us with Grace. Grace that rescues us from living in those failures. Grace that replaces regrets with renewed hope. Grace that reminds us that we can do all things through Him!

Even if that is mustering the strength to attend your son’s preschool graduation when his teacher knows you prefer floral underwear.