Can I have a re-do?

Hello my precious Teddy Bears! It has been way too long! I’ve been thinking a lot lately about re-dos (Is that even a word?). If you know me, you know that I am pretty tough on myself when I feel that my mess-ups negatively affect anyone. I especially hate when I hurt those that I love dearly. Say….like my kids. Can I have a re-do with my kids? Wow, did I make some crazy messes at times! I think back to specific times that make me cringe. I don’t want to go into detail about some of these situations, but let’s just say that my kids are tough and deserved better. I just pray that I remember these incidents more than my kids do. But if they do remember, I hope they can forgive me. Almost every day, I have someone compliment me on my kids. I usually reply with, “They turned out pretty good despite their raising!” In reality, I agree that they are all good people, and that they are the people they are because of so much more than being raised by me and their dad. They had so many influential people in their lives-grandparents, aunts, uncles, church family, friends, teachers and more. Now I see some young parents reacting similar to how I did. It makes me think, “If only I knew then what I know now, I would have been a much better parent.” Any perfect parents out there? Come on, be truthful. Some make better decisions than others, and I know we do our best at the time, but we are not perfect. But you know what we can do now? Be that person that helps. Give that encouraging comment. Offer to help. Create opportunities. Listen. Be available. Teach. Love! Wait! That sounds like Jesus! He does all those things for us. We need to show Jesus in our lives, just as all those people did for my kids. And we CAN have a re-do! We mess up. Jesus takes those mistakes away. We do our best, our very best, and Jesus will do the rest! He IS perfect!