Get Real with God ~ Perfection

Perfection…….

the elusive goal that at times can seem within our grasp, but slips out of our clutches all to quickly, leaving us reeling in regret. We work so hard to attain it and spend much of our lives as wives, mothers, sisters, daughters, and friends believing that unless we are perfect we are not worthy. We want to be recognized, valued, thanked, admired, and loved and believe our quest for perfection will bring us these things.

Often I buy into this lie. I stumble through my day trying to beat perfection out of myself. I tell myself, I need to lose 10 pounds (or more), cook breakfast from scratch (or all meals for that matter), design the perfect activities for all my children, read my Bible everyday, make sure the house is clean, work on some creative project, and the list goes on and on. I go wearily from one area to the next in my pursuit until I break under the realization that I will never attain all that I see as perfection. With the gnarly lie that I don’t measure up sitting on my heart, I pick a fight with my spouse or snarl at my children and a huge weight of guilt hangs around my neck.

The problem is…..as I strive to “do” it is really my glory that I am seeking. I want others, my husband, friends, and kids to look at me and see a job well done. As I look at the world around me, including the other mothers that I see as having it all together, my focus is on them and on myself, not where it really needs to be. Do my kids, husband, and friends really need to see my deeds, my perfection, my glory as I walk through the day or do they need to see my Heavenly Father’s glory? If I am constantly trying to perform to my standard or someone else’s standard of perfection, I have my eyes on myself and everyone else’s for that matter. And let me tell you, that is NOT a good thing. I Corinthians 1:30-31 says, “God alone made it possible for you to be in Christ Jesus. For our benefit God made Christ to be wisdom itself. He is the one who made us acceptable to God. He made us pure and holy, and he gave himself to purchase our freedom. As the Scriptures say, “The person who wishes to boast should boast only of what the Lord has done.”

What relief….It is Christ alone who makes me acceptable, not my deeds or my perfection.

So sisters, instead of holding on tightly to the lie the enemy tells us, that our worth is based on how we perform, let’s embrace the acceptance that Christ provided for us. As we walk out our days as mothers, let’s focus our eyes on the Father and not the world, that tells us it’s version of perfection. But by our words and actions, let’s turn our children into His loving arms that they might see moms who are seeking His face and not looking at their own in the mirror. May our Father magnify Himself through us.