On Grace and Perfection

I know I'm not the only one. I know others struggle with this too. Struggle with perfection and grace. I love and am all for God's grace. I am so thankful for it and I love that He lavishly bestows it upon me. But a lot of times, I don't accept it. I go through my day knowing in my head that grace is mine, but not truly knowing it in my heart and not giving grace to myself. 

I walk to the piano and don't try to play a new song for fear that I won't get it right the first time. I don't try, that way I won't have to go through failing. Oh, you do that, too? Good. Now we know we are not alone. 

I have always prided myself in being a hard worker. I have always said that I work super hard at everything I do. And sometimes I do. But when I think I might fail or make a mistake, I don't take that risk. I work just hard enough to get it done, but not my best so I don't accidentally mess up.

I always want to do what's right. Constantly, always, forever, never making a mistake. That's great and all. We should try to be the best Christian that we can be. However, sometimes, I get a little carried away. I tend to hold myself to a standard of perfection, not grace. When I make a mistake or fail at something, I get super upset. 

But Jesus. But Jesus calls me back and reminds me of His marvelous patience and grace for me, no matter what. He reminds me that I am not perfect, and I never will be. I am human. And humans make mistakes. We fail. We are bound to mess up sometimes. Instead of killing myself because I am always striving to be perfect in every area of my life all the time, I need to remember that God gives grace abundantly. And I need to do the same for myself.

He is always patient and gracious with us. He never holds us to a standard of perfection, Then why do we? Why do we think that we have to be perfect all the time? Because the enemy tells us that we won't measure up, that we aren't good enough, if we aren't perfect all the time. But that's not true. Jesus died for us while we were still in our sin. The Message version of Romans 5:6-8 says, 

"Christ arrives right on time to make this happen. He didn’t, and doesn’t, wait for us to get ready. He presented himself for this sacrificial death when we were far too weak and rebellious to do anything to get ourselves ready. And even if we hadn’t been so weak, we wouldn’t have known what to do anyway. We can understand someone dying for a person worth dying for, and we can understand how someone good and noble could inspire us to selfless sacrifice. But God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to him."

Did you get that? While we were of no use whatever to Him. When we were--and are--imperfect.

I think that a lot of times we, as women, only share the highlight reels of our lives. We just Instagram the best picture, the best parts. We don't let people know that we locked our keys in the car, or whatever you call imperfect. 

I am going to give a challenge. I am going to challenge us--you and myself--to post a messy picture. To talk about the real stuff, the unedited vulnerable stuff. The stuff that might make others feel better about their mess and mistakes. Let's all hold ourselves to a standard of grace, and extend that grace to our sisters as well. 

Linking up here.