"You-Isms"

I've said it before--we are more than a little torn that Phoebe will be losing her cleft lip this Tuesday. Yes, come school time it won't be exactly "cool" to be walking around with a cleft, but we've grown very fond of it over the past eight months and part of us is sad to see it go. Things like seeing her projectile food out of that gap in her lip line are rather enduring.

I think that Heavenly Father feels the same way about us and our quirks and imperfections. While His ultimate goal is to help us become perfect, I think that in the meantime, these imperfections make Him smile. I'm not talking about our sins--God is sorrowful when we choose to break His commandments. What I'm talking about are those little tendencies and trademarks that make all of us each a you. Those little "you-isms"--those things make Him smile.

Things like having a cow lick on the front edge of your hairline or talking too fast when you get nervous. Things like being so clumsy you've considered walking around wearing bubble tape or being so tone deaf that you sound worse than nails on a chalkboard. Things like being such a bad cook, you can't even get rice down, or that the Pintrest projects you attempt look more fitted for a kindergarten classroom than a Martha Stewart magazine--all of these things, all of these innocent little imperfections, make Him smile.

So while we hope that these things which make us less than perfect will go away someday, let us not be too hard on ourselves while we live with them in mortality. Just like Phoebe's little cleft lip makes Jon and me smile, each of our "you-isms" make God smile, and with how things in the world are going, He needs something to smile about.