All my faults running around on two legs

I have a tendency to expect perfection. It's a fault, I know. The person I expect it in the most is myself. And I beat myself up over my own faults. So it's no surprise that I take it personally when I see that my children have inherited some of my characteristics that I deem less than perfect.

My oldest child gets very upset when things aren't the exact way he wants them. I don't mean in a typical toddler way. He's quite obsessive about it. Who does he get that from? Me. And his tendency to be grumpy instead of joyful -- also me.

My youngest child wants everything to be easy. He dislikes any bit of pain. And he's incredibly stubborn. Me again.

Plus both of my children are fabulously dramatic and love to over-react about anything. All day. Just like me.

Every day I'm tempted to think I've done my children a huge disservice by passing my negative traits on to them. But today God showed me differently.

No one is perfect. (Ok, that's not what God showed me. I knew that already.) Faults in my childrens' character, personality, or perspective, are there so that they can work through them. Working through them builds their relationship with God and with others. It causes them to grow.

My children need to fight and win some battles for themselves. So if my kids are going to have any faults to fight through, I'm glad it's ones they've inherited from me. Because I can be there to empathize with them and help them through.

On a side note too, now that I think about it, I didn't notice some of my own faults until I saw them running around in my children. That bad attitude my oldest likes to display all the time -- mine! I like to say that having kids is God's way of changing the things in you that you've always known needed to change but never took the time to do it. Kids will do that to you.

I actually am encouraged to think that there are some things that my children and I will work through together. "Mom, why does our family always...(fill in the blank)." That will be fun.

And what a blessing to be able to recognize the things in my children that I don't want them to suffer through as I have, and to pray that they'll win their battle against those things much sooner than I did. They'll be able to go through life much more unfettered than me.

So, to sum it all up: seeing my faults running around in my children is a blessing, not a curse. And since my kids will be perfect by the time they have kids of their own, I wonder what my grandchildren will be like... j/k.