Perfectly Imperfect

Perfection; a standard we all strive to meet, but always fall short of.
We all want the perfect friends, the perfect family, and the perfect life. When we stop to really think about it though, we realize none of this is truly obtainable. There will always be something we are unsatisfied with. Our friends will mess up every now and then, our family memebers will let us down from time to time, and our sins will always be apart of our lives. Imperfection is a sentence the human race has been serving since the time of Adam and Eve, and will continue to serve until the return of Jesus. I believe though, that life is not about being perfect all the time, because as we know that is not possible, instead life is about how we react to the imperfections.

I am in the midst of learning this lesson right now and wanted to share my heart.
In my life I have been hurt, disappointed, and discouraged by the actions of others, and even my own actions. It seems like the people I have trusted most in my life, are those who have hurt me in the biggest ways. It also seems like everytime I get my head on straight and actually try to do better, I go out and make a huge mistake and end up having to start all over again. As you can imagine, all of this really took it's toll on me. I found myself as a 17-year-old and a heart made of pure stone. I decided to block everyone out of my life, because it seemed like the most logical thing to do at the time. That way, people couldn't let me down, and I couldn't let them down. As a result of this, I shut God out as well. I started living for myself, and of course that was tragic. I made some decisions that I will never be able to forget, I hurt some people in ways that may never fully heal, and caused myself even more grief. All of this happened because perfection was my main focus. I was so caught up in expecting everything and everyone to be perfect all of the time, that the reality was too much for me to handle. It wasn't until this past Spring that I really started getting close to people again. I found myself in a place where I really had no other choice but to do so. I was terrified at first, and am still a little timid now, but it was a decision I really do not regret making. Because of this decision I was able to fully turn my life over to God, and let me tell you, my life hasn't been the same since.

You see, I realized that even through life's imperfections, God is still God. He is still on His throne, and He is always who He says He is. He is always bigger and stronger than anything this life can throw at me. Is my life perfect now? Absolutely not. I still make mistakes, but no longer have to dwell in my guilt. He uses His strenght to do away with it all. Also, people close to me are still letting me down, and life is still stinking hard at time, but the difference is, I now can fully trust that He knows what He is doing. Everything I go through will turn out for good, and it will all be for His glory. I am able to lay all my weakness at His feet, and He will use His perfect strength to do away with them, or use them for a higher purpose. In 2 Corinthians, Paul mentions how we should be glad about our weaknesses, because it is because of them that His power rests on us.

I have come to appreciate my weaknesses and hardtimes, not because I enjoy going through them, but because each one of them brings me closer and closer to my Savior. If not for my imperfections, I wouldn't have a need for a relationship with Jesus Christ. So next time you feel that life is not fair, or that you don't quite measure up, you have a Savior who loves you despite it all. He created us to be perfectly imperfect, so that He can use His strength to overcome it. I am so very thankful for that, because I have way too many weaknesses to overcome by myself.