I took this picture 6 years ago.

It’s a picture of 3-month-old Luke. He’s smiling with his eyes and is about to say something sly and clever to me. And that belly. He’s resting a chubby arm on that belly as if he’d just put away a small stack of chocolate chip waffles.  (My boy loves him some waffles.)

When you see this picture, you most likely see a happy baby. 

When I see this picture, I see a happy baby, too.  And then…I see the mistake I made. 

You see the seat belt?  You know where this is going, right?  Well, I’ll tell you what’s all too painfully obvious here: I forgot to fasten Luke’s seat belt that day.  I was so smitten by my handsome little man, that I stopped to take a picture of him and I forgot what I was doing.  That seat belt never got fasten that morning.  I realized my mistake two minutes later when we got to daycare. 

Obviously, I’m grateful it was a safe ride to daycare.  (And “Yay!” for blink-or-you’ll-miss-them small towns where nothing is more than two minutes away!)  I was horrified by my mistake, though, and when I got to work, I immediately sought out a friend and confessed my crime.  My friend, bless her soul, told me about a similar story — about a mistake that she had made with her young son that, thankfully, had no harmful consequences, but had left her shaken, too. 

This thing called motherhood?  It’s absolutely the best gig in this world!  But it comes at a cost.  It’s cost me my pride, my perfectionism, and on some days…my sanity.

I’ve made a lot of mistakes since I’ve become a mom.  A. LOT.  Some of my favorites:

• On more than one occasion, a co-worker has pointed out that the shirt I was wearing was inside out.
• I recently showed up (and waited 20 minutes) for a dental appointment that existed only on my calendar.   
• I got Luke’s age wrong when I made an entry on his growth chart.  (Note that this growth chart is on a wall in our house, and written in permanent marker. But in my defense, he hadn’t been “5” for an entire month yet when I made that erroneous entry.)

Motherhood is messy, frustrating, exhausting work. And we Moms are imperfect people. But here’s a piece of scripture that gives me hope. I’m considering writing it on my wall in permanent marker, too:

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.  (Galations 6:9 NIV)

Let’s not give up, Moms (and Dads)! Those long days? Those long summertime days when heat, humidity, and patience are all maxed out? It’s all good work.

And in the meantime…I can loan you a permanent marker if you need to write that verse on your wall, too.