Fastidious

When I was on a mission for my church I was told by someone we were teaching that I was fastidious. She said it in this sort of context, "I couldn't see you having a lot of kids, Sister Dexter, because you're so . . . fastidious." To be honest, I had to go home and look up what it meant. Here is the definition:

a : high and often capricious standards : difficult to please fastidious that they can talk only to a small circle of initiates — Granville Hicks>
b : showing or demanding excessive delicacy or care
c : reflecting a meticulous, sensitive, or demanding attitude

I was a little bit offended by this and thought that it was not true. But, it was.
I had a realization today as I was coloring with my two year old. Now, I know what you're thinking, but no I was not demanding any sort of meticulous perfection from Addie in her princess coloring book. She actually has recently started noticing that there are lines and will color an entire object in one color, and then move on to the next. And although, she doesn't by any means stay in the lines, she's doing great and I tell her so. But, coloring with her brought back another random memory from really long ago. I was in first grade and the little boy next door was still in kindergarten and he didn't stay in the lines and so I would not let him color on my page in the coloring book, he had to stay on his own page. Why do I even remember this? I'm not sure. It could be because when I came back from going to the bathroom, he had colored on my page and thought I wouldn't notice. DUH! He didn't stay in the lines, so of course I noticed so I took my coloring book and went home.
The years in between this experience and now have, of course given me lots of experience and better dealing with people so I have learned not to be quite like that. But, when this memory surfaced this morning, the memory from my mission followed right along. I now admit that I as a person am fastidious in my very nature (please don't harshly judge the young me) but I have learned to let some of it go, and am still working on a lot of it. For several months now I have wished that I could have a big sign in my house that said

IS IT REALLY IMPORTANT?

to help remind me in those moments where things just aren't going how I want them to that it's ok. Life will go on even if Addie refuses to wear any pants or Andres won't take a nap at any sort of scheduled time.