Progression Not Perfection

This has been on my mind A LOT! I have been a perfectionist my whole life. I was never satisfied in my classes with getting 95% on a test, I wanted a 100%. We won't be perfect in this life. It's not possible. Sometimes perfectionism can paralyze us and stunt our growth.

Last night I read this quote : “From the fall of Adam and Eve to the present, individuals and even entire cultures have made a variety of attempts to compensate for or to cover their inadequacies. Our obsessions with such things as physical appearance, acceptance, accomplishment, power, prominence, and prosperity (I would add Identity) are often attempts to deal with feelings of inadequacy and shame. The concern with covering ourselves in these ways is that in time, each proves inadequate to provide the protection and peace we hope for. At some point each of us must come to understand that there is no relationship in which we can rejoice, success we can celebrate, or possession we can appreciate that can take the place of a relationship with God and an understanding of the redemption made possible through the atonement of Jesus Christ. Other solutions are much like fig leaves—they might provide a temporary solution to an immediate problem, but in the end they do not provide the protection we need or the salvation we seek.” He continues, ”Shame is one of the adversary’s most destructive tools and is unique among the related emotions of guilt and embarrassment. Guilt is feeling bad about something we have done or not done; embarrassment has to do with our feelings about how others see us. Shame, however, is feeling bad about who we are; it relates to how we see ourselves. “The deepest shame is not shame in the eyes of others but weakness in one’s own eyes.” ~ Daniel K. Judd

This is so true. In church on Sunday I thought about everyone who was there and all of the secrets held inside. Only things brought to the light can be fully healed. We have hidden things like addictions, codependency, abuse, and other incorrect traditions of the family. I believe that we can be the redemptive generation. We an be the ones that repair the breech. But that can't happen when we are hiding.

 I am grateful for the grace of God. Oh how grateful I am. It is only through Him that I can make it through mortality. It is only through Him that I can stand strong when the waves seem so overwhelming. As I have struggled with healing the past it has been through Him that I have found comfort and peace. 

I have tried very hard to find the joy in the darkest day. It is there. There are so many tender mercies I have experienced to ever think otherwise. I know that only when He is in the center of my healing will I ever fully heal.