Yelling at my kids to hurry up doesn’t get them to move any faster. Over-planning our days just over-stimulates everyone in our house. Planning meals is convenient … when I remember to thaw something in time to cook it for dinner. Too often I put chores and tasks before the people I love most.
The more I strive for perfection, the more likely I am to make an even bigger mess of our days, my attitude, and my kids’ moods. I finally heard God speaking to me about these perfectionist ways. He gave me plenty of opportunities to attempt to live gracefully with the imperfections. And then Jill Savage published No More Perfect Moms.
No More Perfect Moms is a 224-page non-fiction Christian living book aimed toward moms. It was published in 2013 by Moody Publishers.
Really, it seems like Jill Savage wrote her newest book for me. But in blogging about this book, hosting some guest posts on the subject, and being part of Jill’s book launch group, I’ve realized she didn’t write the book just for me. You know, I’m not alone in wanting perfect days, perfect kids, a perfect marriage, and a perfect house. But the truth is, that’s crazy. Perfect is never going to happen.
instead of failing moment by moment by not meeting the ridiculously high standards I set for myself, I decided to embrace the No More Perfect Moms message.
Clearly, I’m not the only one. “My family and I have been amazed at the response to NMPM,” Jill Savage said. “I've never had a book that went into its second printing at just 14 days. I love that God can turn my mess into His message. That's what He's done with NMPM!”
The message is real and breaks way down this infamous Perfection Infection, as Jill calls it. An infection that is counter-productive in every area of our lives.
“We compare our messy insides – our struggles, our failures, our less-than-perfect lives – to other women’s carefully cleaned-up, perfect-looking outsides.” {p. 15}
Y’all, that’s like apples and oranges. There is no way they’ll ever be the same. Instead of comparing, No More Perfect Moms encourages us to ditch the Perfection Infection that clouds our lives and replace pride with humility, fear with courage, insecurity with confidence, and judgment with grace. Our perfection-infused expectations often lead us to missing some of the best everyday moments in life with some of the people we love most.
Jill Savage is the founder and director of Hearts at Home.
Jill and her husband, Mark, have five children, three of them married, one granddaughter, and one grandson. They make their home in Normal, IL. She shares stories from her real life and other real moms to show the readers how, while we can’t be perfect and neither can our lives, we do serve a perfect God. He is ready to partner with us in our daily lives.
“It’s important that we respect others, but not fear them. It’s important to honor others, but not worship them. Only God is to be feared and worshipped. We confuse the role God plays in our lives when we depend on people to approve, define, or accept us. Only God gives us an unchangeable, perfect identity.” {p. 187}
With encouragement from this book and grace from God…
I’m trying to stop working around the house long enough to hear what my kids are really saying. I want to choose games of Uno after dinner instead of worrying about sweeping up every last crumb. I see God working in the imperfect moments more clearly than when I’m trying to hold too tightly to my plans. Be gone, Perfectionism, my life is more perfect without you.
In which area of your life do you most struggle with perfectionism? Tell us in the comments and one of you will be randomly selected next week to win a copy of No More Perfect Moms, thanks to Jill Savage and her team. Giveaway ends Friday, March 29, 2013.
Kristin Taylor lives in Murray, Ky., with her husband, Greg, and two kids – 5-year-old Cate and 3-year-old Ben. She can often be found trying to beat her husband in Words with Friends, playing games of Settlers of Catan with her best friends, listening to her daughter’s stories, reminding her son to be careful, planning a trip, or texting her friends. You can keep up with her at www.kristinhilltaylor.com or follow her on Twitter.