There just always seems like there could be more… More that we could be doing, more that we could be learning, more that we could be achieving, more that we could be becoming. I know as women, we have this engrained thought that we have to be perfect. We run ourselves ragged trying to better ourselves mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. There is this twisted logic that we all believe that if we are somehow perfect that our lives will be blessed and that we will keep ourselves from conflict and pain.
I just had a monumental birthday. I said goodbye to my twenties and welcomed my
thirties. As I pondered on everything in
the last decade, I realized that there were many memories that left a lasting
imprint on my heart but that there were even more memories that I am so very
thankful that God gave me a heart strong enough to survive. In this last decade I have put a lot of
pressure on myself to be perfect, make perfect decisions, all to establish a
perfect future. At the end of my
twenties though what I have truly come to realize and learn is that human
perfection is imperfect.
Last night as I poured out my heart to God, asking Him for
His wisdom on finding the answer to letting go of perfection, I felt like He
answered me with this:
“Why are you constantly trying to find yourself and figure out who you
are? You were never lost to me.”
It was a simple statement but one that really made me
ponder. Why do we spend so much time
trying to discover who we are, who we were made to be, when God has known all
along—before we were even born.
Psalm 139:13-16 For you formed my inward parts; you knitted
me together in my mother’s womb. I
praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very
well. My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, everyone one of
them, the days that were formed for, when as yet there was none of them.
The answer is quite simple—stop trying to be perfect.
2 Corinthians
12:9 “My grace is sufficient for you,
for my power is made perfect in weakness.”
We were made by design, God crafted us with His own
hands. All of our days were written by
God, He reveals the answers in regards to our purpose by us simply asking
Him—Lord, what is your plan for me?
This made me ask myself, Am I living for my own purpose or
for God’s purpose?
God knows exactly who you are, He knows His exact plan for
your life, but how many of us ask Him on a daily basis what that plan is?
Proverbs 16:1-4 The plans of the heart belong to man, but the
answer of the tongue is from the LORD.
All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, but the LORD weighs the
Spirit. Commit your work to the LORD,
and your plans will be established. The
LORD has made everything for its purpose.
God does not require your perfection; He simply requires
your obedience.
The only “more” that we need to focus on,
is becoming more like Christ—the rest will all fall into place.
