I am a parent of four, a wife of a budding chef, a dreamer and hopeless perfectionist. Unfortunately, those truths about me don't easily gel together to produce a harmonious lifestyle. As you can imagine, my life can be chaotic, unstable and discouraging as often as it is fulfilling. Today I discovered something that brought tremendous hope to my heart.

I am homeschooling my 5-year-old daughter, which tends to be a painful reminder of all my inadequacies. Since Christmas break, we have felt such defeat in returning to our work. It seems like so much of the progress we made last semester has faded, and we have lost our way on the road to learning. We both find ourselves avoiding the schoolwork with any chore or restful diversion.

This afternoon as we were doing just that - reading a mystery novel and flying with Tinkerbell and Silvermist - I looked up from my indulgence and just took in my daughter's face. So often she can become the child taking a toy from a sibling or the picky eater taking 45 minutes to eat eat a quarter slice of personal pizza, and the frustrating interactions can mask her with a checklist for improvements. In the quiet of that moment, as the other children were napping, those muddying versions of my daughter melted away, and I saw the soft, innocent beauty that glows from within my young child. I felt a warmth within me that I knew so clearly when I held her newborn body in my arms. She is completely unique and special. Her weakness chosen by God just as specifically as her strengths. As the struggles we work through together faded to make just a background for her sweet face, I swelled with renewed purpose and drive.

This evening as we sat and read together, she as distracted and disinterested as usual when she grew weary of failure, I found that God had reshaped my heart with a patience that had not existed before. We pressed through the pages, digging our way through the wrong answers or slow conclusions that would halt us with defeat, and by the end of the lesson she emerged a new student. I watched her suddenly transform before me, reading with the grace of a ballet dancer.

The only thing that changed, was my return to my love for her. It was not that I had stopped loving her, I had just begun to act as though it was not important as being a firm parent or a masterful teacher. Being her mother today meant being the support to her weakness and the confidence to her insecurities. As my child, she so easily trusted my lead and followed me into a new plateau. It made me see that God has designed our lives to work in just this way. He is always waiting with this perfect love. It does not criticize to perfect us. It does not see us as a project or a measure of success or failure. It only loves. It is a moment by moment, perfect footing under each step we take. If we can find that childlike trust and relax into its triumphant embrace, he will raise us up to places we could never go on our own - for His joy! As elated as my little learner was at her own accomplishments, she could not know the heights to which my spirit soared.

As I begin a new day tomorrow, I pray that my view will not revert back, but only grow more resolute and clear on this new road. Whatever hurdles life calls us to jump, there is the power beneath our feet of a Father who created us to overcome.