Traditional Home

I love to relax and read magazines (who doesn't?!), and when we get together with Cole's family, magazines are usually involved. Last time Cole's parents came to visit, his mom brought the October issue of Traditional Home with the warning that it contained nothing of what we think of as a "traditional home". She was right! It has some of the most modern and trendy things!

Although totally being opposed to it myself, I often wonder of the day when newspapers and magazines will go by the wayside. There is something about holding the magazine and flipping though the pages that I don't want to give up. However, with my recent discovery of pinterest (!!!!), I am wondering if I will jump on the digital bandwagon too. I can't get over the convenience of "pinning" something I like, rather than folding a doggie ear in the page, snipping it, and filing it away in one of my many files. The thought of an online file cabinet is right up my alley. Click here for my pinterest page. Before you decide that it is not interesting (I only have like 5 things on there), check back sometime soon after I have had more time to play!!

Anyway, the point of this post is this excerpt out of the magazine's "from the editor" article by Ann Maine.

"Have you ever been secretly relieved when a drop of wine dribbles onto the fabric of a new chair or a pristine appliance acquires its first tiny scratch - because you've finally been liberated from worry? If so, then you appreciate why in some cultures, artists deliberately incorporate a small flaw into their creations. It is through this flaw, they believe, that the spirit enters. Perhaps it is through flaws that spirit enters our homes. As designer Ruthie Sommers recently told us, "There is a movement in a design that says living well is more important that looking perfect. Imperfection means that rooms are lived in, and that is what design is all about."

To be honest, I thought the first sentence was going to say that she was relieved, not because the flaw liberated her from worry, but because she wanted a new couch or appliance already! That's what I was thinking anyway! Who isn't always thinking of ways and reasons to redecorate?! (Hence the my pin board "One Day"). I was immediately convicted of my desire for new things when I am blessed with so much already. Aren't we all?!

What she says has a ton of truth in it! For me, the first sentence reworded could say...I was secretly relieved when...

I made my first B in school....finally liberated from perfectionism.

I dissappointed Cole for the first time...finally liberated from perfectionism.

I discovered that there are a ton of people that give and serve more than me ...finally liberated from perfectionism.

I made tomato soup with fried okra last year and it was a disaster...finally relieved from perfectionism.
I clicked "publish" on a blog post, later to find out I had misspellings and grammatical errors...finally relieved from perfectionism.

I didn't know the designer my friends were talking about...finally liberated from perfectionism.

I plain forgot to read my Bible one day (I am reading it through in a year)....finally liberated from perfectionism. 

Whew! Thank goodness I have a God that delights in my weaknesses. My weaknesses make me turn to Him and look to Him as my Savior. In my weaknesses, He is made strong. Can I just put my strivings for perfection aside and be vulnerable? I must remember that flaws produce character. It is through our flaws that the HOLY Spirit can enter. God wants us to admit our imperfections and lay them down before Him. He wants to redeem our imperfections. He wants to redeem us.

I hope people look at my home and say that to the Sims, "living well is more important than looking perfect."