Perfection always Fails

A Mimi and Mommy art project 

Perhaps you like I have struggled with who you want to be and the person you are right now. There is a divide between the two and the ground to cover in order to bridge that gap seems daunting. You really want that end result but just the idea of achieving it seems so impossible. You have tried before and failed and failed again. Maybe you want to lose a few pounds. Maybe you want to read your bible more. Maybe you want to spend less and save more. Maybe you want to stop yelling at your kids or learn to handle your emotions better. 

Whatever the maybe is...whatever the goal...there is grace. I am learning about His grace...the grace that makes the journey bearable. In fact it is His grace that makes the journey possible. You see I am learning that really growth is about grace. Growth isn't about willpower or fortitude or pulling yourself up by the bootstraps its about grace. It's connecting with His grace and letting it flow to our failures and then getting back up and as my friend Kelly says stumbling forward. 

Growth can't be about perfection because perfection isn't sustainable. You may be able to do it all and do it all perfectly for a while but there will come a time when something slips and the perfection fails. Then what? Do we give up because we can't do it perfectly? For a lot of us the answer is yes....if I can't do it and do it right why bother at all? To that I would say because it isn't about doing it right... it's about doing it at all. If it's worth doing then it's worth doing imperfectly. 

God tells us that our salvation is about grace not works (Eph 2:8-9) so why would we think that growth would be? We can't even save ourselves I am not sure what makes us think we can force ourselves to grow in our own strength in our own works...but we do I know I do. I have had some success losing the baby weight...but the hardest thing about it was not exercising and eating right...it was resting in the failure and connecting with grace. Sure I had to do something...I had to make some right choices...but sometimes the right choices don't always produce the expected results. Sometimes our body doesn't always lose the same way every week or at all...instead saving it for the next week. Or perhaps I did slip up...do I let the  imperfect choice(s) define me or do I look at the whole picture and rest in grace? When I would weigh in and the number wasn't what I wanted....I had to make a choice...to beat myself up and look for imperfections or to turn to grace...His grace. I needed to say to myself I am not perfect and that's okay because it's not about perfection it's about staying the course and giving myself some grace...His grace. You see there will always be imperfections and dips in the road because we aren't perfect. It's not a matter of if the dip or roadblock will come it is when? So what do we do with those?

I say turn to Him and return to grace and keep going. Let's cover ourselves in His truth...and allow that to define us rather than our failed attempts at perfection. "And so we are transfigured much like the Messiah, our lives becoming gradually more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become more like Him." (2 Cor 3:18b MSG)