A while back I wrote a post about how I wasn't really great at anything, but I was okay at a lot of things. There is the inner pressure to be perfect. I want to be the perfect daughter, wife and mother. I want to decorate the perfect house, cook the most delicious meals where everyone enjoys them, create the perfect scrapbook, or write the best blog post ever.
That inner desire to be perfect can be debilitating.
I don't know why its there, I'm not even sure where it comes from.
In our various religious organizations we are taught to try to be like Jesus, and He was perfect.
The message that often gets lost on me is that He offers me His grace because I am not perfect nor can I ever be...without Him.
It's a balancing act really...
But by my struggling for perfection and trying to do everything perfectly, I've realized it is like spitting upon my Savior, and I definitely don't want to do that!
Yes, it is good to strive to do your best, but that guilt when I'm not, is where Christ comes in.
His grace makes up that difference...
Even in my mediocre scrapbooks or my severely lacking meals...
Because through His grace and love, He knows the intent of my heart. He knows that I want to be the best to honor Him, and that is enough.
Through Christ I will always be enough...
How wonderful it will be some day to hear "Well done, thou good and faithful servant...You are enough."
Do you struggle with trying to be perfect and the guilt when you come up lacking?
I get this. I too struggle to be perfect, or at least appear to be perfect. I don't think the problem is in the striving to be our best, but at (at least for me) how much the ego is striving to be stroked. That's the part I always identify and feel dismayed by. My perfection, or appearance of perfection, is all about how others will perceive me. Blech. Great reminder-- thank you.
ReplyDeleteI love your post.
ReplyDeleteI think we compare ourselves to others too much. We want to be as good or better as the best and the best is whatever we think a certain person is or is doing. Usually that is not even realistic. We think we have done something wrong that we are not as "blessed" as someone else in the areas we struggle in. We are not judged on the basis of other's performance but what is in our own hearts. We are given weaknesses, all of us, so that we can be humble and recognize this great gift of grace from the Savior. It is a hard thing. Life just is not easy for any of us but we can rejoice in the good days and grow from all the struggles. It is always better if we can look at the eternal perspective.