“Don’t wait for everything to be perfect before you decide to enjoy your life.” ~ Unknown
I will admit right up front that this is one that hits me square between the eyes. I am, in many ways, a perfectionist. I most often view my world as to what is still lacking, what needs to be fixed, or what else I can do. I think that stems from being raised by a very demanding father who never wanted to settle for anything less from his sons. He would often tell us that it didn’t matter what we did at school as long as we tried our best. But if, God forbid, we would come home with anything less than an A on our report cards, it would get ugly.
So, when everyone else is ready to inaugurate a new program or task, I’m sitting in the background biting my lip and saying to myself, “What if? Did we consider everything? Is it going to crash and burn?” That’s a pretty miserable place to be.
We do that in many ways in our personal lives, in our professional lives, and in our spiritual lives. As a priest, I’ve known many people who struggled with their spiritual lives. They wanted to do as much as possible in order to grow closer to God. They wanted to learn new ways to pray and would often be frustrated because, quite frankly, some of the ways just were not conducive for them.
For good reason. Some methods of prayer go more with introverts and others with extroverts. It’s hard to attempt something that goes against your personality. If a person tried to employ a type of prayer that did not work with his or her personality, little progress would be made and that person would become upset.
Not everything works. This holds true for any facet of our lives. The things that don’t work we need to discard. The things that work, we need to retain. We can strive for perfection but we need to remember that perfection will never fully come to us until after we enter the Kingdom of God.
Therefore, if there is something you want to try but are afraid that you will not be able to do it 100%, don’t wait. God will help you in your endeavor and you may gain much from your attempt.
FAITH ACTION: Don’t think about what is still missing. Instead, thank God for what you have and enjoy the life He has given to you.