While I was away for Spring Break and had the wonderful opportunity of leading a small group of remarkable young women. One of the topics that seemed to pop up the most was perfectionism.
per·fec·tion·ism
pərˈfekSHəˌnizəm
noun
1. refusal to accept any standard short of perfection.
Most of the time, if not all of the time, I find myself falling into the trap of perfectionism. Now, I know, what’s wrong with perfectionism?
Perfectionism often puts us in a box. I feel as though there are fun times that I may have missed out on because I was worried about doing something the “right” way. I also feel that this could lead to trying to be “socially perfect.” This is where we show off every fun thing we’ve done, every cute cafe we’ve found, all of those relationship posts we’ve made, and make everyone around us think as though we have our lives together. I mean, really, how much time do we spend on one social media post? I know that it takes me forever to 1. take the picture 2. choose which one of the thirty pictures I’ve actually taken 3. edit that picture 4. figure out a cute caption and then 5. finally post that perfectly filtered and captioned photo. What we don’t seem to be posting on our social media accounts are the darker parts of our days where we are real, emotional, sensitive human beings.
Another thing about perfectionism is that it has the power to defeat your initiative! Have you ever seen those awesome DIYs on Pinterest that you just think “One day I’ll get around to it,” but you can never take that first step? You wait for the perfect time and maybe you end up settling and you never end up doing that great DIY. We often do this in our everyday lives with things that are much larger than simple Pinterest DIYs. Often times we set standards for perfectionism in our lives, but a lot of the time these standards just cause a sort of paralysis and make matters worse and we never end up getting things done! Things like reading the Bible, our devotions, or maybe it’s taking the first step and going to a small group you’ve been wanting to try. The fear of having high standards and not being able to attain a level of perfectionism, for those standards, in your life, might be holding you back from some seriously awesome experiences with God.
Ecclesiastes 11:4
Whoever watches the wind will not plant; whoever looks at the clouds will not reap.
This verse explains that we shouldn’t wait for the “perfect” time to get things done, we just need to get them done because, I have come to learn that, there isn’t really a “perfect” time for anything.
Think of your relationship with God like a seed and you are the farmer. If you never take the risk and get to know Him and plant that seed, then you’ll be like the farmer who waits for the opportune time and his seed end ups staying in the barn. This is a picture of our relationship with Jesus Christ. If we don’t take the time to get to know Him, there won’t be any real relationship. If you just take a moment to plant that seed and begin praying and reading the word, you will definitely find that Your relationship will flourish. Now, there will be times where you go out and plant the seed and the work might get ruined by the wind or rain; sin, but keep trying to plant your seed, you will see results and you will reap rewards in Heaven.
So don’t wait any longer! Don’t let perfectionism get in the way of your relationship with Jesus Christ! Start now and you will reap a great relationship with Him!
