Letting Go Of Perfection … Again

There is something about holidays that brings out my crazy.

Our church has a gathering after the Easter services to greet guests and visit with other members.  We all bring a plate or two of hors d’oeuvres to share and I always bring my
(practically famous in my small church)
deviled eggs. 

However, as fate would have it, my boiled eggs did not want cooperate with me.  The shells stuck to the egg white like they’d been super-glued. Big hunks of egg came off with the shells leaving me with the ugliest looking things I’d seen since I tried to cut my own hair.

I looked at those pitiful eggs and had a decision to make.
Take ugly eggs to church or take nothing.

The voice in my head chided
You can’t take those!
They look awful!
No one will eat them.
They aren’t worth taking.
Maybe you should stay home if that’s the best you can do.

I have learned to recognize the
lies my enemy uses to try to defeat me.

I put on the armor of God because

This. Is. War. 

Pushing aside the enemy’s rumblings,
I replace them with Christ’s thoughts toward me.
Perfection is your enemy.
Perfectionism is curable.
No one cares what the bottom of a deviled egg looks like.
You are more than your works.

I whacked the eggs in half and started making the filling.
My new recipe combining dill, celery salt and nutmeg was the bomb.
Seriously! They were delicious.

At church on Sunday, they disappeared faster than kids at chore time.
Not one snide remark about the divots on the underside of the egg white boats was muttered.

Why is it so easy to let a little thing
like ugly eggs undermine my value
as a child of God and as part of my community?

Do you do that?

Do you assume that if you’re not perfect …

or your kids aren’t perfect …

or if your marriage, spelling, hair, driving, 

or your deviled eggs aren’t perfect …

that YOU aren’t acceptable?

We have an enemy that will try every which way
 to keep us from building community where we can
be embraced, accepted and contribute.

Girlfriend, will you join me to
train your brain to recognize those lies?

Will you take hostile thoughts toward you captive,
lock them down and
replace them with the Truth of God’s word?
Will you remember that Jesus Christ died and rose because
He loves you and that makes you acceptable.
It’s not what you do, but whose you are!

Pursue progress, not perfection.

Scripture Refresher: We use our powerful God-tools for smashing warped philosophies, tearing down barriers erected against the truth of God, fitting every loose thought and emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ.  (1 Cor. 10:5 MSG)

Prayer: God, make me alert to the lies the enemy uses to immobilize me that take me out of community with you and with your people.  Give me new thoughts to replace old lies that creep in and try to derail me.  I want to know only your thoughts for me about who I am.