Thinking about “good enough”

My friend, Megan, shared a link to an article on Facebook the other day: Blessed in weakness: a good enough mother. This got me to thinking about the phrase: good enough.

This phrase, this good enough, is something I have used often. It all started when I was in a singles ward and the Bishop rounded us up for a Relief Society lesson on dating. Those are the best, right? Turns out, this Bishop did an excellent job with the lesson. It stuck. At least with me, it did. The heart of his message was to be looking for Good Enough. I guess he had sat down with enough young women who couldn’t find Mr. Right, or were telling Mr. Not-Right-Enough no. Their lists were too long, too demanding, and too unrealistic.

My Bishop told us to focus on three things for who we date, and in this order: how they treat women and children well; if they work hard; and how they honor their priesthood. That, he said, was good enough.

I took his message and actually applied it to work as well. This led to writing an article for ModernAnalyst.com about this “philosophy”: Be Good Enough: How the Agile Process Refocuses Business Analysts on Imperfections.

The phrase, “good enough” it’s often associated with negativity: “Her gift wasn’t good enough”; “His effort wasn’t good enough”; “Your assignment isn’t good enough”.

But I try to search a little further and find the positive Good Enoughs.

I try to remember at work that things are good enough; I don’t need to stress. I try to remember with laundry, that we are doing good enough. That with helping Dominic to be a happy boy, I am doing good enough. That with all of the different focuses (work, Dom, Nathan, home, soccer, friends, family), it’s good enough. The ding in the bumper of the car that somebody put there and didn’t leave a note doesn’t matter because everything else with the car is good enough. The crying that Dominic does when he doesn’t want his diaper changed or to go down for his nap is okay because he’s happy more often than not and that is good enough. The silly things that I get frustrated about with Nathan are simply that, silly, because he’s handsome, a great cook, so gentle with Dominic, driven in school and work, and a good little church goer–all very good enough. I have zits, but my body can do so much and that is good enough. I am afraid of having another child, but I will get the courage again one day and that is good enough. I am terrible at getting out of bed in the mornings, but eventually I do and that is good enough.

Nothing here is profound. But that is good enough.

In the creation, “God saw that it was good.”

And in the Garden of Gethsemane, the Savior said, “Sleep on now, and take your rest: it is enough, the hour is come”.

Good. Enough.

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