*Now that I'm a mom, I'm trying to figure out the best way to write this public blog without overexposing my child. I'm not quite sure how I want to do this yet, so please bear with me as I might try different things in different posts moving forward*
Last weekend I was outside with my 1 1/2 year old son blowing bubbles. He wanted to try, so I gave him the bubble wand. For the next ten minutes or so, I watched him poke through the holes with his fingers, blow on the wand like it was a harmonica, another time like it was a flute, poke through the holes with his lips as he tried to blow through it, and eventually manage to get a few bubbles out by waving it around just the right way and then even by blowing just a teensy bit farther away from the wand.
In between each attempt he would dip dip dip the bubble wand back into the bottle to get more bubble solution on the wand.
I laughed at his attempts, but also was proud of him for trying for so long.
He still hasn't quite figured out how it all works, but that's okay.
As I sat there watching him, I had the tiniest thought that I should bear my testimony the next day about watching my son blow bubbles. I thought about how much he has learned in his short life so far and how every single thing that is so easy for me has taken him a ton of trial and error, bumps and bruises, and lots and lots of messes.
And then I thought about how we were put onto this earth to become like God. And about how God has had LOTS of time to perfect being God. We can't even begin to comprehend His timetable. And if I can look at my son's progress and laugh and be proud of every effort, then I think that it's a safe bet that our Heavenly Parents do the same.
They don't expect us to become perfect without mistakes and messes. And They watch our every effort with smiles and pride in Their eyes.
I think that sometimes we are way too hard on ourselves for not being who we want to be. Like, it took most of us over a year to get to a place in life where we could figure out how to use a fork, so why in the world do we expect much more complicated things to come to us without trying again and again?
It didn't seem to bother my son that in 10+ minutes of trying, he got a sum total of maybe 5 bubbles out of it. And it didn't bother me either.
So maybe it's okay if we're still waving our bubble wands around and playing it like a flute. Maybe it's okay if after years of working to become like Christ, we are still making mistakes. I think that it's okay to be proud of any bubbles that we make, no matter how long it takes to make them because we know that we haven't given up.
Someday my son will be able to blow bubbles without a second thought.
And someday we will be able to live the gospel more naturally too.
Someday we will return to live with our Parents, having become like Them, and every stumble along the way will have been worth it.
We just have to keep dip dip dipping the bubble wand until we get there.
