Learning from Homemaking Mistakes

The Proverbs 31 woman is supposed to be a whiz at homemaking. I wonder, though, about the mistakes she might have made that turned her into the great wonder that she is. Our model in Proverbs was most assuredly human, so she was not perfect. Our overall model, though, IS perfect - Jesus Christ. So, while we model ourselves after the Proverbs 31 woman, we must also realize that even she erred at times. We have to always keep in mind that our end goal is not necessarily to be like that great lady, but rather to be like our Savior and Lord, Jesus.

Here are some great (and not so great) mistakes I have made in homemaking, most of them recent. We continue to learn every day, do we not?

• Gum might come out of hair when frozen with an ice-cube, but it does not come out of your laundry once it's been washed and dried. It becomes gooey and meshes right into the fabric. If it is colored gum, it also gives a nice stain.
• When a little girl tells you that she will not mark on her clothes if you let her draw on the church bulletin during the sermon, she's lying.
  
• You cannot wash melted green crayon out of carpet with a damp rag and liquid Joy.
• You cannot cover tiny plants with plastic in hopes that a frost or freeze will not kill the plants. The plastic makes the plants colder and they will doubly freeze.
• You cannot hang your clothes to dry on the clothesline outside and then let big dogs out to play near them.
• Pheasant eggs and children are not a good combination. Maybe an explanation is due here: My husband is raising exotic pheasants and sometimes sends the kids in the pens to look for eggs to put in the incubator.
• Get rid of all animals if you want a perfect house. You might want to get rid of all children, too. It's a trade-off.
• Do not try to catch an iguana that's hiding in a closet without putting on gloves first. Don't even think about catching it with a net, as it will rip the net to shreds with its claws. Put gloves on your teenage son and tell him to just grab it. Then insist you're going to get rid of the thing but never do.
• Unless you're a perfect cook, don't stray from recipes too much. And on the same subject, when trying to make a fancy meal for company, it's best to forget about multi-tasking. Four teaspoons of baking soda and four teaspoons of baking powder are two different things. You might have a seven-year-old scream, "Yuck! These biscuits taste terrible!" Save yourself some embarrassment.
  
• If you want a housekeeping job done right, do it yourself. If you want to teach your children valuable lessons, let them do it as you teach and guide them, allowing them to make some mistakes. Remember, you make mistakes too. If your husband is the one making the mistakes, pretend not to notice and then fix them quietly when he's at work.
• Above all, start your day with the Lord, delving into His Word and talking to Him. He listens and He'll help you cope with whatever mistakes you make that day.