- QUINTESSENTIAL – (kwin te SEN shel) adj
- representing the perfect example of a class or quality
- Of the nature of a quintessence (in all senses); ultimate
- quintessentially – In a manner that is typical or characteristic of a thing’s nature
So, in other words, Carol is the perfect mom. She embodies what being a mom is supposed to look like. Lovely and well-organized and together. And, of course, all my defensive reactions flare up inside me. All my perfectionist tendencies. All my people pleasing faults. All the fears of being “not enough”.
But let’s face it. I am NOT the quintessential mom. I don’t dress like one. I don’t talk like one. I don’t decorate like one. I laugh and sneeze loudly. I don’t enjoy cooking. I don’t scrapbook and keep good records of all my children’s pictures and accomplishments. For all of my children’s lives I have not used a calendar. I am a bad driver. I am goofy and uncoordinated and ungraceful and quirky. Frankly, I would make June Cleaver and Carol Brady cringe.
I have tried to be (kwin te SEN shel). It rubs me wrong. It is itchy and scratchy and too tight for me. It gives me the jitters and makes me want to scream and run the other way. Maybe it’s the rebel in me. Or maybe it’s just because God made me this way. Outside the box. A little odd. Very random. Unquintessential. My spell check is telling me that is not a word. Well, now it is…
Please enjoy today everything that God made you to be. There are plenty of things that we aren’t or can’t be. But you are created uniquely by God for very specific purposes. He gave you everything you need to do that. The right looks. The right personality. The right strengths and weaknesses. The right gifts and abilities. For real. Just take a look at Psalm 139:13-16 –
13 For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
And Ephesians 2:10 –
For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Oh, and p.s. Carol – I just cleaned out my fridge, did a load of laundry AND made homemade stew in the crockpot! 🙂 (right after I wrote this, Blake walked in from basketball and asked me what the smell in the kitchen was. I told him it was me trying to be quintessential. He said that that I would never be quintessential, but that I was unorthodox. Okay. I can live with that 🙂 )
