Nobody's Perfect

I was getting my hair cut tonight by one of my neighbors at her salon. And so, we're doing the small talk thing, talking about our neighborhood and school and our kids. And she says something like,

"You must be so patient with your kids."

Then I laughed and said something to this effect...

"Actually, when it's nice outside and we have our windows open, I sometimes wonder if people hear me yelling at my kids? I sure hope they don't."

At which point she responded by saying,

"I don't believe it, you guys are like the perfect family."

It's unfortunate that people assume that because you're a pastor at a church that you're perfect. The Deans, for the record, are so far from perfect -- starting with dad (that's me)-- who yells at his kids more often than he really wants to and isn't near patient enough with them, and who says sarcastic stuff to his wife, and oftentimes fills his life with more TV than is probably wise, etc., etc. And then I was thinking on the way home, that it's sad to me that so many people navigate life thinking that they're the only person who struggles with the stuff that they deal with and that people assume that they are the only ones broken. We're all broken. Period. So let's stop pretending we aren't. And let's stop putting people on pedestals that they can never maintain.