I’m joining Amber and Seth Haines in the Mothers Letters project. You can write a letter too and join the link-up party here.

Dear Mother, purveyor of lives that radiate the holy mystery in small frames of dust imprinted on kitchen counters, on sticky floors, in unmade beds,

I’m writing to tell you that perception and reality are two separate bridges running tandem in your  mind. That both bridges access truth, but the bridge of your own perception makes the journey to truth long and arduous. Choose reality.

When you watch other mothers stand in line for soccer sign-up and your child doesn’t find joy in kicking a ball around a field, it doesn’t mean that your child is somehow less of a little person because he doesn’t fit in to the perceived ideal of childhood. It probably means God didn’t instill passion in him for a ball the same way he did for those other kids and that’s good. Because God makes children in His own image. Not the image of the neighbor kids.

When your kids aren’t asking for play dates and prefer to be at home with you, it doesn’t mean they are anti-social or rejects. It means that God didn’t create them with the same intrinsic need to extrovert as others.  That wisdom doesn’t only come to the aged, but early too, regarding friendships and good choices about healthy environments. Because He gives wisdom to those who ask and wisdom doesn’t look like following the crowd in order to be accepted. Wisdom lives for an audience of one, not the audience of the school, church, or parent/teacher association.

When you stand in the spotless kitchen of friends with older kids who do chores, have quiet times, and take mission trips without prodding, it doesn’t mean those friends are better at parenting. It means that the lives of our children are stories written by Him, each with separate chapter and verse, their name as the title on the spine. That you, not what you do, are a vital part of their storyline to lead them to Christ and make good choices. It’s why He decided to make you a mother.

Because some day, your son will declare on Facebook, how awesome it was to be at church and when a friend asks him why, he’ll say it’s because he learns about God. And you’ll realize that most of communicating Christ has to do with the silence of living that shouts who He is, not what you do.

When your daughter is old enough, she’ll wake herself up and drive herself to church when everyone else sleeps. You’ll realize that heart transformation isn’t about how spiritual, organized, creative and tidy your mothering skills resound. It’s all about grace and the way she weaves herself into the cells and sinews of life when you weren’t noticing.

Perception is sometimes like the foggy mirror in someone else’s bathroom.  She thinks the reflection of you should look like the one who lives there. Reality is what you see when you wipe the steamy mess of life off the surface. And truth, it’s the smile of God looking back at you in the mirror. His reflected image loving you just the way you are.

The mother He created you to be. Uniquely, wonderful you.

Linking with God Bumps, Imperfect Prose, Walk with Him Wednesday, WLWW, Word Filled Wednesday.