Freedom from Perfection
Hey girl!!! I hope you know exactly how fabulous you are! I hope that you know how loved you are! I hope you know how valued you are!
Mostly, I hope that you know that you don’t have to be perfect to be any of these things!
We live in a society that thrives on, focuses on, and encourages perfection.
Having perfect skin, perfect eyebrows, and perfect hair is a desire for most women.
Striving to have a perfect shape or a perfect body is what keeps the health and fitness industry afloat.
We buy tons of books, cd’s, dvd’s and other resources on parenting and/or marriage, in hopes that we can learn to be the perfect spouse or perfect parent.
We have to be the perfect employee. We have to be the perfect volunteer.
Although we know that social media may be the culprit for a lot of this.. have we ever stopped to think what is really the fuel behind our desire to be perfect? What is the fuel that keeps our perfectionist wheels turning?
I recently did some research on this. I pondered the topic and searched what the bible had to say about it.
I was not happy with what I found. But I am grateful for the truth that it revealed and the opportunity for God to cleanse my heart.
I found myself crying out to God in repentance.
Perfectionism is essentially a form of pride. It is often a result of the desire of acceptance, and the fear of what someone will say if something isn’t perfect or done perfectly.
Please allow me to clarify… there is a difference between doing something in pursuit of excellence, and doing something in pursuit of perfection.
When something is done in pursuit of excellence, you have the desire to do your very best with the resources, gifts and talents that you have. This is fueled by the love you have for God and the love you have for people, and your faith that He will accomplish what needs to be accomplished after you have given your all.
When something is done in pursuit of perfection, you still have the desire to do your very best. But the fuel behind it is not so clean. This is fueled by the fear of what others will think, or what others will say. It is fueled by the desire for acceptance, and the fear of rejection. Or, even worse, we become so afraid of what others may think or say that we become paralyzed, and do nothing at all. Whatever the case is, perfectionism is never motivated by love or by faith.
I had to repent.
The truth is, perfectionism is bondage. We are holding ourselves, and even worse, sometimes others, to a standard that God never expected us to obtain.
As a matter of fact, that was the whole reason that Jesus came.
God knew and knows that we are not and CAN NOT be perfect.
Today is your day to walk in freedom from perfection.
Today is your day to walk out of the bondage of perfection into the freedom of God’s grace.
This quote sums up what that means the best:
“Grace is God acting in our lives to do what we cannot do on our own.” ~ Dallas Willard.
God never intended for us to look to ourselves to get everything done perfectly.
God never intended for us to look to ourselves to raise our children perfectly.
God never intended for us to look to ourselves to behave perfectly, respond perfectly, and to perform perfectly.
“It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect.” Psalm 18:32
Only through Him. Only in His strength. Never in our own strength can we be made perfect, or can our way be made perfect.
As a matter of fact, it is only when we let go of perfection, only when we come to the end of ourselves and our abilities, that we can truly experience the strength and power of God.
His grace is sufficient for us. His strength is made perfect in our weakness. (2 Corinthians 12:8-9)
When we take our eyes off of ourselves and our abilities (or lack thereof), and place our eyes on Him, we can experience total and utter FREEDOM.
Freedom from beating ourselves up when it’s not perfect. Freedom from beating ourselves up when we do not meet the expectations of others, or ourselves.
Freedom to be exactly who we are, an imperfect people who are ONLY being perfected by the sacrifice of a perfect person, who is Jesus Christ. (Hebrews 10:14)
Your best is good enough, as long as we give it to Him to accomplish what He wants to accomplish.
“To all perfection I see a limit, but your commands are boundless.”
Everything we do in our own strength is limited. But when we put it in the Master’s hands, while giving Him our best…girl the sky is the limit!
God is not looking for perfect people. He is looking for willing people…willing to yield to His will and His way.
He wants us to walk in freedom…..freedom from Perfection.
We can rest in that.
