{"id":4921,"date":"2019-03-31T09:00:48","date_gmt":"2019-03-31T14:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.barbdahlgren.com\/?p=4921"},"modified":"2019-02-15T18:55:00","modified_gmt":"2019-02-16T00:55:00","slug":"choose-to-be-perfect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/?p=4921","title":{"rendered":"Choose to Be Perfect"},"content":{"rendered":"

Choices change our lives\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

By Barbara Dahlgren<\/em><\/p>\n

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Reading \u201cBe ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect\u201d in Matthew 5:48 reminds me of all my imperfections \u2013 which are many to be sure. The imperfection I hate most in my life is that I\u2019m not perfect.<\/p>\n

Those who struggle with perfection know too well the feeling of never really being good enough. We are like those children learning to write the alphabet for the first time who tear their papers up the second they see they have malformed a letter. It makes no difference that they made it to the \u201cR\u201d without a problem. If the \u201cS\u201d looks sloppy, then in the trash it goes. Practically perfect people are hard on themselves.<\/p>\n

In psychological terms, perfectionism is the belief that perfection can and should be attained. When that belief transforms into thinking anything less than perfect is unacceptable, problems occur. Through a perfectionist\u2019s eyes, a person\u2019s self-worth is determined by flawlessness. Of course ideas of perfection vary from person to person. Perfectionists set rigid standards of performance for themselves and sometimes for others. They never feel they \u201cmeasure up.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of my favorite movie lines comes from Mary Poppins when she humorously replies, \u201cWe practically perfect people never make mistakes.\u201d Poppins, like most everyone else, links perfection to lack of mistakes. Sometimes Christians make the same error in reading the Bible. Actually the word \u201cperfect\u201d in the above scripture is \u201ctelios\u201d meaning finished, full grown, mature, lacking nothing, or brought to completeness. It has nothing to do with making mistakes or not being good enough.<\/p>\n

People commonly think that all perfection is about physical achievements such as being good, successful, or sinless. When God speaks of perfection, He wants us to \u201cbe complete\u201d by being spiritually one with His Son Jesus Christ. This perfection is not designed to make us look good or perform flawlessly, but to let Christ\u2019s life be manifest through us. Physical perfection is more concerned about actions we perform to a certain level, whereas spiritual perfection is about becoming totally dependent on God, letting Him work through us to perform His will \u2013 not ours. It is not concerned about \u201cself.\u201d<\/p>\n

The good news is that we are already perfect in God\u2019s sight. We are reconciled through Jesus Christ and He lives in us. This perfection does not come from our false concepts of trying to be good enough. On our own, we will never be good enough.<\/p>\n

Consider this\u2026It is not about our goodness; it\u2019s about God\u2019s greatness. With Christ in us, we are brought to completion and we lack nothing.<\/p>\n

Will we make mistakes? Sure. But remember \u2013 the perfection spoken of in this scripture is not about what we do; it\u2019s about what Christ does.<\/p>\n

One final thought\u2026<\/strong> Christ\u2019s life in us makes us perfect or complete.<\/p>\n

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Choices change our lives\u2026 By Barbara Dahlgren Reading \u201cBe ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect\u201d in Matthew 5:48 reminds me of all my imperfections \u2013 which are many to be sure. The imperfection … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4921"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4921"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4921\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}