School Days and the guilt of parenthood

I did not make it to school to see any of these events Thursday or Friday. I had doctor's appointments and a class to teach. I lifted these pics off their class website.

Sometimes when I see pictures of other parents who were able to make it, I feel less-than, as if I were doing an inferior job of parenting. Even when I understand rationally that I can't be everywhere and do everything. Even when I've taken them bowling before at the same venue.

My thinking goes to the balance scales of what I could do, and what I didn't.

I missed the bowling field trip on Friday, but I did make it to the class picnic that followed for my first graders, and got there in time to bring a yogurt parfait to my fifth grader for friends and family day. I happened to sit next to a fifth grade boy who said, "I really wish my mom could be here." Turns out that his mom is serving in the military in another state. I told him that she wished she could be there too, and that I would have lunch with him that day.

I missed both boys' baseball games this week, and could not volunteer for the fitness gram testing or make cupcakes for the dance, but I did open my house to 16 people (with five extra neighbor kid friends in and out as well).

 

So often my thinking runs along these lines. What I did well. What I missed out on. What I totally botched. What can I do? What should I do? When is it ok to let someone else do the volunteering at school while I volunteer at church?

Easter is the perfect time to renew my thinking and rest in His perfection instead of evaluating my own progress and failures.

Thank you, Jesus, that life is about You, and not whether I've done more good than bad lately. Help me to reflect much more on your fullness rather than focus on my shortcomings. Fill me 'til I want no more.

Art by PeggyAplseed