The Pursuit of Perfection Will Be Our Demise

Last week Zoey and I went to my parent’s house to pick pears. They have two dwarf pear trees in the backyard, so we went to get some to preserve. As we were picking, I hear my mom tell Zoey “isn’t that a funny looking pear” while Zoey laughed. I didn’t get to see the funny pear until I was sorting them at home. It was a funny looking pear!! As I looked at it, I had this gut feeling this pear was going to teach me something. I thought about that funny looking pear all day yesterday. 

And today, when Zoey and I were having our morning snuggle time (AKA – Zoey watching Curious George on “her” iPad while I drink my coffee and play Candy Crush while catching up on Wastebook), I saw many posts about Kim Kardashian at the VMAs. I don’t care for the Kardashians, it’s American culture at its  worst. However, they are people. And I do care about them. About their humanity.

I don’t want to give any more traffic to what they’re saying about Kim by linking to it. What the trolls are talking about is the weight she has gained during her pregnancy and how “fat” she looked at the VMAs. I was disgusted. I was pissed off. Who the hell do people think they are to body shame someone, even if they’re asking for it by putting themselves in the public eye?! I’m still boiling with anger that people can be so ignorant. So hateful. So hypocritical. 

The problem is that we think there are perfect personalities, perfect attributes, perfect behavior, perfect lives, perfect diets, perfect families. We worship celebrities for having perfect bodies. We praise moms who have a perfectly clean house, with perfectly behaved kids. We cut an ungodly amount of calories, while perfecting our macros, to fit into the perfectly deemed diet. We run like mice on wheels to burn the perfect amount of energy, to manipulate our bodies to become perfect.

Perfection is so engrained in our thinking and behavior, that we throw tons and tons of food away, because it doesn’t meet our strict aesthetic standards. It’s no wonder we’re so miserable we feel the need to laugh at a pregnant woman for gaining weight! 

I have this idea about what kind of wife, mother, steward, follower of Jesus, employee, artist, HUMAN I should be. I hold myself to unrealistic expectations. I think I should weigh a certain amount, and work out so many times a week. I think I need to eat a perfect paleo diet, and grow it all myself. I think I should be able to fix my PCOS without medicine. I think I need to keep my house spotless, while still giving my undivided attention to Zoey. I think I should only say nice things and never yell. I think I will be everything, to everyone. I also think, I shouldn’t be exhausted. And when I don’t look that way, I throw myself out.

Let me bring you back to the pear, since this is what started it all. When I looked at that funny pear, I never wondered at what point it stopped being a pear. I never doubted it was a pear. I never thought of throwing it away because it wasn’t worthy to be a pear. 

You are just like that pear. I am  just like that pear. Just because I didn’t work out 5 times this week, or had to start taking medicine to control my PCOS, or if I use the iPad as a babysitter so I can sit and enjoy my coffee, because I was too tired to wake up an hour before she did, or because sometimes I’m a b**ch to my husband when he gets home from work, doesn’t mean I’m not worthy. I am worthy. 

You are worthy. 

Ephesians 2:10 says we’re God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works. Your worthiness has nothing to do with how you look, or how your life looks. Your worthiness is because you are God’s workmanship. He deemed you worthy. Not because you did anything, but because God loved you. 

If God has deemed us worthy, why then do we beat ourselves senseless to be perfect? Why do we feel the need to put ourselves, and others down, for falling short? Why do we doubt ourselves, our positions, our callings, our love, our humanity, when we fall short of perfection? The pursuit of perfection will be our demise. It needs to stop.

This week I want you to remind yourself that God has deemed you worthy. Write it on your mirror or save the image below as your lock screen.. Don’t throw up your hands in defeat when you’ve failed to be perfect. You could even try singing “Let It Go” whenever you mess up. When we change our thinking, we change our behavior. 

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