I wrote to our Compassion kids last week. I was so excited to tell them all about the daffodils blooming! It has been such a long cold winter that our daffodils are just now beginning to open … here at the end of March. It is very exciting! The very first flowers of Spring!
I sent our Compassion kids this photo.
I told them all about how these flowers are the very first flowers to come up each Spring! And how they are always a bright, cheery yellow, or yellow & white.
A few hours after I sent the letters to our Compassion kids, I realized that I had been calling the daffodils – “tulips.” How could I make such a mistake?? The entire letter I told our kids all about these flowers being “tulips.”
I was appalled at my mistake.
So embarrassing. What if the letter translator knew the difference and thought that I was stupid??
I wondered if the letter translator would correct my mistake for me.
Probably not. Because the letter translator probably wouldn’t even notice the mistake. My guess is that daffodils aren’t that common in Africa, Bangladesh, or Indonesia. So probably neither the translator, nor our Compassion kids would even notice … or care for that matter.
The thing that mattered is that I wrote to them. I cared about each of our kids, and I wrote to them telling them about our life. That’s what matters! The fact that I care about them … and want to have a relationship with them!
The same thing is true when it comes to my relationship with God. Sometimes we might worry that we don’t know all the right words to say when we pray. What if we say something wrong?? What if we don’t pray “the right way”??
What if we say the wrong thing … just like I said the wrong name of the flower in my letter to our Compassion kids??
It’s ok if it’s not perfect.
What matters is that we are talking to God. What matters is that we love God, and we are telling Him about our life. That’s what matters! The fact that we care … and want to have a relationship with God.
God loves to hear from us! Just like our Compassion kids love to receive letters from us. God want to have a relationship with us! God wants to hear anything and everything we have to say. And it’s ok if it’s not perfect.
Talk to God. Tell God anything … and everything.
And if you realize later that you accidentally said something wrong, you can always “write another letter” … which is what I am going to do for our Compassion kids. I’m going to write to them and tell them all about tulips! My mistake actually opened the door for me to have yet another interesting thing to share with them.
I’m going to send them photos of all the amazing colorful tulip fields in bloom up in the Skagit Valley! I know they’ll think that’s cool.
It’s ok to make mistakes. It’s ok if our relationships aren’t perfect.
What matters is that we care … and that we are trying to have a relationship.
