Our Desire to be Perfect

“I can’t stand making a mistake!”  “I’m always seeking to be perfect, but fail.”  “I so want to do everything right, but I give up because I know I won’t be perfect.”Beliefs like these are emotionally crippling.   Feelings of imperfection leave us overwhelmed and struggling with profound inadequacy. A perfectionist spends hours in self-condemnation.I know this, because I am one.  I collapse into sorrow and shame when I experience a desire to do things right but come face to face with my failure in achieving perfection.Practice this as a solution. At least, it is a mind-set I’m trying: Seek perfection, but do it God’s way. Play the following “game” with God.  Your prize is attaining perfection.Your 1st move:  Sit down at the “game board”,  and say: “ God, I admit my imperfection and my craving to be perfect.”Jesus’s 1st move:  He says, “Beloved,  I know you’re imperfect.  I died for you to deal with that imperfection.  Accept it. Accept yourself as you are.  Accept Me.  I am the Essence of Perfection.”Your 2nd move:   “Phew! What a relief. LORD, I open myself to You.  Come into me — into my mind, my soul, and my body — and be my perfection.”Jesus’s 2nd move: “Through that simple request, Dear One, I enter your heart. You have now BECOME PERFECT.  Christ is in you. This is a mystery.  It is an act of faith.  You will not see or even feel the perfection and mistakes will happen.  But I will view you as PERFECT.  Remember, you are not answering to any human being about your perfection or lack there of. I alone  am your judge. When your life on earth ends and you enter heaven, you are accountable only to me.  And I see you as PERFECT through the lens of Christ’s blood now and forever.”Your 3rd move:   “I thank you, Jesus.  I will move forward, free from the heavy weight of needing to be perfect. Throughout my day I will declare that I am perfect IN YOU.  Thank you for covering my imperfections with your blood.”Jesus’s last move:  “My pleasure. I love you.”