Stop Trying to Be Perfect
When you learn how to relax in God’s liberating grace and break out of the prison of perfectionism, you will find a new level of joy and freedom in your life. Why? Because perfectionism is destructive to your life in several ways.
It defeats your initiative.
Have you ever had a project you haven’t been able to get started? You think, “One of these days I’m going to get around to it,” but you just can’t take that first step. One possible reason is perfectionism. You’re waiting for the perfect circumstance or timing, or you’re waiting until the kids get out of school, or you’re waiting until a certain amount of money comes in. When you set your standards so high, perfectionism causes paralysis, and you can’t get anything done.
The Bible says in Ecclesiastes 11:4, “If you wait for perfect conditions, you will never get anything done” (TLB).
It damages your relationships.
Nobody likes being nagged or corrected all the time. It’s frustrating and irritating! The Bible says, “Love forgets mistakes; nagging about them parts the best of friends” (Proverbs 17:9 TLB). Perfectionism—the desire to always correct—damages relationships because it’s rooted in insecurity. Perfectionists who are harsh and demanding on other people are really harsh and demanding on themselves.
It destroys your happiness.
Ecclesiastes 7:16 says, “Don’t be too virtuous, and don’t be too wise. Why make yourself miserable?” (GW). This Scripture isn’t talking about genuine righteousness or real wisdom. It’s talking about perfectionism. You can transform any virtue into a vice by taking it to the extreme.
Your worst nag lives under your skin, because you are your own worst critic. (That’s true for all of us!) Since we tend to resent and even dislike people who nag us, if you’re always nagging yourself, what does that say about you? It says that you don’t like yourself. You think you’re not good enough. And you think reminding yourself what’s wrong with you is going to motivate you into doing the right thing. It’s not! That’s called perfectionism, and it causes you to constantly put yourself down.
There’s just one antidote to perfectionism. It’s not in a self-help book or a doctor’s office. You can only learn to relax when you fully experience the liberating grace of God.
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So when do we stop trying to be fair? That is the real question. Joseph measured food by weight for Pharaoh, and carpenters measure twice. No place in the Bible does it say to stop measuring food, and food was measured for 40 years in the Wilderness. How many crosses were there in the Bible? The crucifix, the sword, anchor, food scale, clock and the compass? Was North and South ever mentioned? What happens when we measure food and we become fair with food? The world eats. We save money. We don't waste. We feel better. Our hearts are protected from the valves blowing with overeating. We control our eating instead of family, friends or judgement from strangers. How many times is the food scale in stained glass? Google it. Every Christian would benefit and be wonderfully hungry if we weighed our food. No one wants to be fair. We are all greedy.
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