It's OK to be over that line!

One of my favorite books is by, Bonnie Keen, GOD LOVES MESSY PEOPLE and as I was staring at a sheet of notebook paper tonight I thought, "we put so much emphasis on our children to 'stay inbetween the lines', Use your fork and spoon so you don't make a mess on your hands. When maybe we should just be teaching them to do THEIR best and let them know that in Romans 3:10 it says, "There is none righteous, no note one." And, if they go out of the lines a little or get something on their fingers they are still loved and in turn we can instill a principle of how to go about cleaning up the mess with the use of a rag (God's word for our lives), and show them that pencils have erasers for a reason, because no one is perfect, except for God, and if their very best after erasing and trying to draw the letters again is still over the blue line then congratulate them for their work, ask them to continue writing so they can finish the "message" instead of just giving up on one letter, and build them up instead of causing them frustration that they may feel they can never achieve that computer printed teacher's manual version of the answers and how it's "supposed" to look. How often as women do we paint our own nails and slip up and go onto our skin a bit? I usually just polish remover it off with a qtip and move on to the next nail. If we stay stuck on the first letter or first nail or attempt to not spill anything at all or get it on our hands we may never get to write a whole word or story, paint all the nails or finish eating our meal and drinking our drink because we are now afraid we will mess up again! This does not mean we should scribble down some chicken scratches, gobble our food down like pigs, or dump the polish on our fingers just because God Loves Messy People. God loves us despite our mistakes and what He loves even more is our willingness to get back up and keep going and do better the next time, He doesn't ask for perfection the next time, just our BEST! If we groomed our children and ourselves to live up to perfection standards we are setting both up for immense heartbreak when the pencil slips across the paper, the polish is clumpy or we are served finger foods! Let's delight in how God created us to be UNIQUE and leave the perfection up to HIM! :)