The Great Chase

I think it’s pretty evident by now, but let’s just say, I’m a sucker for a good inspirational quote.

Case in point: Just check the early days of my IG profile. I made those quote art images like they were going out of style.



But anywho.

The kids I nanny for got their school planners the other week, and me, being the school supply junkie that I am, of course wanted to flip through them. Fondle the crisp pages. Smell the freshly printed ink. I geeked out a little.

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But let’s be real: the best part of the planners is hands down…the cheesy inspirational quotes.

You know what I’m talking about – the images of a hang glider with something about “soaring;” or a weathered mountain climber boasting about perseverance.

And just for the record, I always tried to be as minimally cliched as possible with my images.


But I digress.

I flipped open his planner and the first quote I came across was this one:

“Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence.” – Vince Lombardi.

And when I read this, I actually inadvertently let out an audible groan of disgust. The little boy was like….”Are you okay?”

But this quote absolutely made my skin crawl. Chase perfection?! Come on, Vince, you’re better than that!

Trust me, I am all for doing the best you can and working hard and striving for excellence. But chasing perfection? That is a one-way ticket to destruction. Just ask 78 lb high school me. Because that’s what I was doing: chasing perfection.

So you can imagine how my gag reflex was triggered when I read this in an elementary school planner – right there for these impressionable little minds to soak up and internalize.

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If there is one thing I’m going to teach my future kids (God willing), it is not to chase perfection.

Here’s the thing about perfection – aside from the fact that only Jesus was perfect – Perfection communicates that everything less than that unattainable standard is “not good enough.” A failure. A let down. By encouraging our kids to chase perfection, we are literally setting them up for failure.

During my anorexia, I had in my mind’s eye the notion of what I considered perfect: the body, hair, appearance, clothing, friend group, weight, BMI, etc. Couple that with crippling “people pleasing” tendencies, and there was literally no way I was going to settle for anything less.

And I nearly died trying to achieve it. #notanexaggeration

So, what should we chase?

Let’s chase God.

I know, I can hear the eye rolls.


But it’s true.

Let’s seek after His heart. His will. His face. Let’s chase after that. Because when we do – all those other things will fall into place – all those things we exhaust ourselves with when we’re striving for perfection – the self control, the integrity, the discipline, the excellence – those things will come naturally when we put our focus on chasing after Him.

I know, it’s a weird concept to think about: chasing after God. I mean, heck…shouldn’t He be chasing after me? Well, yes, and He does. But God also wants to be pursued.
God is a jealous God. He tells us so in Exodus 34:14. “Do not worship any other god, for the Lord…is a jealous God.” And that verse always confused me: Jealousy is so negative. I didn’t get it.

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That is, until I went to inpatient. When I, for the first time, really sought after God.

I feel like my whole life was just kind of going through the motions of Christianity, taking for granted His love and presence in my life.

It wasn’t until I was at rock bottom, desperate for His help and grace, that I realized that God isn’t going to force Himself into my life. He doesn’t want to compete. And He won’t. He will allow me to pursue — to chase — whatever my heart desires. And during that dark time, I was chasing perfection. Chasing it all the way to death’s doorstep.

But during my pursuit – or chase – of perfection, God was always there, He was just waiting for me to chase Him. Because the second I took my eyes off of perfection and shifted my gaze to Him, that’s when the healing took place. And He swooped in and healed my brokenness. He had been waiting all along.

But I had to pursue Him.


So now, perhaps, you can understand the visceral disgust I felt when I read that “inspirational” quote in my little friend’s planner.

There is nothing good that comes from chasing perfection. And I will take that all the way to the bank.

Chasing perfection leads to bondage. Chasing God leads to freedom.

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SO EXCITED TO SHARE WITH YOU!!!

MY PUMPKIN ICE CREAM RECIPE!

I shared this (my fav food) with you in Monday’s video and I received so. many. requests. for the recipe.

SO – I made a Facebook/Tasty/Buzzfeed-style video (read: < 1 minute) of the recipe!

Hope you enjoy!


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214 responses to “The Great Chase”

  2. Not having had your experience, I kinda liked the quote from ol’ Vince. But after your discussion of it, especially how kids might see it…oh my!!

    Then I started remembering how nice my recovery from bypass surgery was; eat, sleep. breathe. Repeat as needed. There’s much freedom to be had in not beating yourself into perfection! Do you best, as The Preacher says in Ecclesiastes. We should take joy in the work God has given us and focus on Him.

    Caralyn, I know you’ve been busy and likely haven’t seen my email. Julie and I will by in NYC Sunday through Tuesday, meeting up with an old friend from Australia and his wife. Seeing them Monday morning, but other than that on our own. Details in the email. We’re hoping we might see you, however briefly. Maybe a bite to eat together one evening? Let me know, OK? It would be great!

    Off to PATREON!

    Reply

    • Hey Jeffrey! Hah yeah, I’m such a packers fan, I hated to have anything even slightly negative to say about King Vince’s words! Haha yes yes take joy in the work He’s given us. Oh gosh, I’ve been so slack with email lately! I’m out with friends right now but I promise I’ll check when I get home! Big hugs xox

      Reply

  3. Yay, first comment! 😀 We shouldn’t chase “perfection,” but we should strive to one day become saints in Heaven and physically see God, who are all perfect – that’s the kind of perfection I chase 🙂 I’m really glad you found grace and healing by chasing God – He is always a good God! May He bless you <3 😀

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  4. Today, while catching up on my WordPress reading, I happened upon the same Vince Lombardi quote. (God is awesome.) I had the same visceral response.

    Then (more awesomeness on God’s part), I received an email from a friend sending me a link to a C.S. Lewis quote. The quote? “The command Be ye perfect is not idealistic gas. Nor is it a command to do the impossible. He is going to make us into creatures that can obey that command. He said (in the Bible) that we were ‘gods’ and He is going to make good His words. If we let Him—for we can prevent Him, if we choose—He will make the feeblest and filthiest of us into a god or goddess, a dazzling, radiant, immortal creature, pulsating all through with such energy and joy and wisdom and love as we cannot now imagine, a bright stainless mirror which reflects back to God perfectly (though, of course, on a smaller scale) His own boundless power and delight and goodness. The process will be long and in parts very painful, but that is what we are in for. Nothing less. He meant what He said.” C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (1952; Harper Collins: 2001) 205-206.

    What a contrast: Man’s pursuit of perfection versus God’s plan of perfection. God’s way is full of grace. Man’s way is full of failure.

    I hope you found this as encouraging as I did. “(A) dazzling, radiant, immortal creature, pulsating all through with such energy and joy and wisdom and love as we cannot now imagine, a bright stainless mirror which reflects back to God perfectly . . .His own boundless power and delight and goodness.”

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  5. There’s no getting around it; I just love the way you write and present the issues and as a mom of an elementary girl: I surely do not want her to chase perfection. Last year on their wall I saw this “When you have done the best you can do – then you can always do better”. I totally gagged at that one!…

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  6. At first I was trying to figure out what was wrong with the quote, but after reading this post, I understand (as much as one can that has never been through your experience). Thank you for sharing!

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  10. Hi, thanks for a good laugh, the first half of this post about “chasing perfection” rings so true to me as well. So funny that it provoked a disgusting reaction in you, and how you narrated it in such an eloquent way.

    I feel like society indoctrinates a perfectionist mentality into so many of us and it’s refreshing to see someone say something which is in antithesis to this. So, hats off to the writer! Great post.

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  12. BBB…..awesome post, thanks so much for sharing it with us!I am wondering if you could give me your email address or FB page so I could message you….I need to ask you something! Thanks again!

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  13. I often semi-joke to the congregation I serve “Hi, I’m Jim a recovering perfectionist.” You have illustrated from your own life how destructive that can be. I again value your wisdom and seeking after God, and God alone. Something that I am doing again at this stage of my life. Seek after God period.

    Blessings my friend

    Jim

    Reply

  15. Haha too funny. Today I wrote a blog I put on the shelf for later called ” 7 Reasons I Hate you Franklin Covey” because I am so sick of meaningless inspirational quotes.

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  17. Thank you for this post. Just wanted to share some Scriptures re: the Perfection thing (only because I love most of your posts and wouldn’t comment if I didn’t trully wanted to share what made finally sense to me after years of having the the same thoughts about perfection as you currently may have)… So here’s the scoop (as they say in Aussie lingo)…

    The Bible says we got to strive for PERFECTION (please don’t cring.. it get’s better…:).. easier to understand I mean.. I hope)…

    We’re told in Matthew 5:48 “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.”…

    This perfection is not in things that would lead us away from the RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD – but what would actually STRENGTHEN & NOURISH our spirit to strive to BE LIKE JESUS in our characters.. and GOD uses our weaknesses actually (not our PERFECTION) to become our strengths (2 Cor. 12:9) which are RECKONED as PERFECT thanks to a thing called our FAITH (that comes from an educated conscience – read Romans 10:17 – it comes from studying the BIble (not just reading it as a story book.. and PRAYER).

    Is anyone perfect? NO! Of course not! That is why we read that Abraham’s FAITH was RECKONED to him as RIGHTEOUS (righteousness is the level of perfection that GOD can only deal with) – Romans 4:3 – “For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.”

    So one can BE RECKONED AS PERFECT – in INTENTION ONLY – ONLY thanks to JESUS CHRIST – when we believe in HIM being the ransom sacrifice to free ALL mankind – every single human – from the curse of the death sentence that came upon eveyr single human when Adam sinned – Jesus became the CORRESPONDING PRICE – freeing all from the prison house of death you see…

    So Abraham was not perfect, even as others of our race are imperfect,—”There is none righteous, no, not one.” (Rom. 3:10.) But we are told that God so highly esteemed Abraham’s faith that he counted it as making up for his natural blemishes and imperfections. “It was counted [reckoned] to him for righteousness.” (Rom. 4:3.) He had faith in what God had told him, and, as James (2:22) points out, he manifested his faith by his general conduct. We of the Gospel age (this 6000 years of permission of evil that is soon to end, before the perfect 7th thousand Millennial “day”) are also justified by faith—righteousness is reckoned to us through the exercise of FAITH.

    Hope this helps to realize that GOD’s only standard whom he deals with is PEERFECT INTENTION NOW RECKONED as RIGHTEOUS (perfect) thanks ONLY due to Jesus COVERING us – being our Advocate (not mediator) once we accept him as our personal Redeemer and wish to follow in his footsteps, taking up our cross and giving up our wills – counting it dead – and wishing only to have that will of GOD – that only wants what IS PURE and PERFECT not pertaining to the fleshly things.. but that pureness and perfection that develops in the flesh, but is of the NEW MIND in Christ, thus the development of that New Creation in one – the longing to be like Jesus and see him as he is – and that longing for a body which will know no sin it it when faithful unto death – as it shall be, GOD willing, changed into an imperishable and incorruptible one when resurrected (1 Cor. 15:42)

    Finally here are some inspiring words by our Apostle Paul from Philippians 3:12: –
    about pressing toward the Goal:
    “11so that I may somehow attain to the resurrection from the dead. 12Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been perfected, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have laid hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead,…”

    GOD BLESS YOU dear friend and keep up the great posts that can lead many to Christ 🙂 xxx

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  21. Another inspiring post…I am still working on my faith and relationship with God but it is getting stronger each day. That quote made me sick when I read it, I honestly had to reread it multiple times. I am a teacher and if that was in one of my student’s journals I would have been appalled. I would never want any child to ever chase perfectionism because there is NO such thing. I rather them be challenged and learn from their failures. Thank you for sharing!!

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  23. BBB! I am so glad that you felt like wretching at that quote! Chasing after perfection always ends in disappointment. And I am so glad that you have also been learning those two lessons God wants us learning: 1. I am not and were never meant to be enough. 2. Because of Jesus I will always have enough. Because of Jesus we don’t have to worry about being enough, doing enough, or becoming enough. Because of Jesus, you already have all that. So the chasing we do is done because of love, not because we need to get it or prove we were worthy of it. That is a chase I can get behind. =)

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  25. Love this! it is so true! Go pursue your dreams…God has them all. He’s waiting for you and I to finally let go of what we think is perfect and follow his lead to our true dreams. He knows our heart better than we will ever know it ourselves. He know what soothes our souls. What’s so great about our God? It is the way he loves our imperfect souls! Thank you for the beauty in your words. I am blessed.

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  27. I’ve been trying to come up with a response to this post that doesn’t come across as critical, condescending, or correcting, and I hope that I may share my perspective without doing any of those things. Firstly, I do not wish to presuppose anything regarding you, your life, your struggles, or your spiritual walk with the Lord. That’s not my place, or intention. I do believe that the perfection that you write about is the world or society’s take on perfection, and thus fully agree with your premise! Like so many other words that were once exclusively used to describe God and His workings, society has taken them and perverted them. We should chase after God, though He never changes, never moves, never casts us away. We choose to sin and turn away, but God calls us back to reconcile the relationship. He did this in the most beautiful and supreme way possible, Jesus Christ. Christ, as I believe and understand, lived a sinless life, a perfect life. Faultless and untainted. In doing so, God gave us the ultimate sacrifice to atone for the sin that is present in our lives from the beginning. Thus, Jesus is the ultimate example of true perfection. We ought to strive to be more like Jesus (which you affirm)! Where the world/society calls us to compare ourselves to their definition of perfection, God calls us to look beyond that toward Christ. Christ should be the litmus test for our lives as we strive to be more like Him. Though, because of sin, I will never be perfect in this world until either I am in Heaven or Christ returns. So, yes, we should not chase the world’s understanding of perfection because it is perverted, but should instead look beyond this world and look toward the Cross on which Christ died a sinners death after living sinlessly, the true perfection. We will never measure up to Christ in this regard while we walk this earth, but I (we, those who have faith in Christ’s life, death, and resurrection) will strive toward being more like Christ in full assurance that I (we) will one day be made whole in Heaven or upon Christ’s return.

    I hope that I have not overstepped my bounds, and do wish to reassert that I completely agree with all that you have had to share in this post! I appreciate the honesty and sincerity in which you discuss this topic in regards to your perspective. Continue to ponder the things of the Lord, continue to chase after the things of God, continue to strive to be more like Christ! And as Proverbs 3:13-14 states, “Blessed is the one who finds wisdom, and the one who gets understanding, for the gain from her is better than gain from silver and her profit better than gold.”

    Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,
    T.

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  31. The first part , I agree completely. The second part , Aaah … I don’t know. Am not devoted yet, I do not believe.
    However , I wannna say , you can make a connection with your writing. May be someday , I will see what you see in HIM 🙂

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  32. God wasn’t running, he was watching and when you let go of your false god, Perfection, and turned around he was there to embrace you as you fell into his arms.

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  34. Speaking of IG, have you ever seen that stamp going around the internet that says, “I put my grandmother on speed dial – I call that ‘instagram’ ” ;D

    But I digress.

    This runs close to something else I’ve been thinking about, that is, the emphasis in the church corporate and otherwise, for people to pursue religious perfection–holiness, righteousness. Someone else might have already thought to mention what Jesus said about that–‘seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you’. Frankly it makes me angry when I hear or see someone say, “well you better be careful–you don’t want to give yourself too much grace and freedom…” etc, ‘greasy grace’, fear-mongering on the straight-and-narrow, church culture is so set on the pursuit of perfection and it makes me mad because it takes so much away from the real deal, knowing the love of Jesus, being secure in Jesus’ love for me.. there’s no room for fear or pursuit of perfection in that. Truly, Jesus didn’t dig ditches on the straight-and-narrow; the church did that–and to her shame.

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    • Haha grandma on speed dial?! No! I haven’t seen that! But I will for sure keep my eyes peeled! Thanks for this reflection, Carson. You’re right- Jesus’ love for us is definitely secure. Hope you’re having s great week. Hugs and love xox

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  36. The truth is we can’t be perfect as you said. But we can always be a better version o ourselves. Kelp getting better as we keep growing, knowing Christ more and doing out part cause we have the ability to; given by God.

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  37. Thank you thank you! We should really chase God because he is perfection. Amen sistahhhh!! Thanks for sharing. Sometimes we all need a little reminder, I’ve been all sort type of things lately so thank you for sharing this ❤️! Hugs and love babe

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  39. Hello. With the love i see you get on your blog, i presume you have received more than enough awards. But this recognition award is just to let you know that I love your blog and i enjoy following your blog and reading your words. You don’t have to accept it.
    Thank you

    Reply

    • Hey there! Yes-inpatient refers to when I went to inpatient treatment for anorexia. It was back when I was 18. I shared about it back in the early days of my blog:) hope you’re having a great day! Hugs and love xox

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  43. Great post!
    We always see perfection as the end goal, to lead the perfect life but it leaves you empty and feeling not good enough because it is unattainable. It also denotes trying to do things ourself without God and that honestly never ends well.
    You are totally right that we need to seek God and chase after him!

    “Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.”-Matthew‬ ‭6:33

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  45. “If a thing is worth doing, it’s worth doing it badly.” …I couldn’t begin my recovery until I learned this to be true. Thanks for the post 🙂

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  46. BBB, thanks for this post. Indeed, that is my Chase for life and all is falling in place, even consolation I find in abundance as I greatly chase God. This perfection thing almost got me nuts too especially with my cleaning obsession, people pleaser personality, school and etc. The other day, I asked my son to clean their bathroom and I clearly think he did his best. I came in to supervise and before I knew it I was saying ‘it is not perfect but it is not so bad’. I immediately felt bad passing on that kind of crap message to my son— I don’t want to sniff that word perfect again. I let him go but couldn’t resist the urge to clean the places I think he missed out… It’s a constant battle— when I decided I had had enough with my body mass of 115 kgs – FOOD WAS SUCH A CONSOLATION FOR ME IN A MISERABLE MARRIAGE, I tuned on perfect and got down to 70 and my mum cried and begged and even threatened. Now am at 77 and well about to go try losing some again, but don’t aim for any crap perfect…

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    • Hey there Marie! Thank you so much for sharing this. I totally feel ya-the quest for perfection is almost an addictive mindset that can be stifling. I’m so glad our paths crossed:) sending massive hugs xox

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  48. Great post! I began to follow you because I have a teenage daughter who has body image issues, food issues and self-image issues. Your insights help me to understand what place she is coming from, and with that shared insight, hopefully I can help her. So, thank you. Thank you for helping me help my beautiful daughter.

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    • Thank you so much Thunker! I’m so glad that our paths have crossed during this time for you. I hope that it helps. Will be keeping your daughter in my thoughts and prayers:) Hugs and love xox

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  52. “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.” John 15:4

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  54. Yea…chasing perfection is destructive. I wonder what that guy was like who came up with that quote…haha! In all seriousness I struggled with being called perfect but that paralyzed me and I would beat myself up when I made mistakes. That label is dangerous and impossible. The best we can do is reflect Christ and his ways but still remember we are HUMAN.

    Much love!

    -J

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  61. It’s a delicate balance….doing well, striving for good, doing our best…and yet not succumbing to perfectionism. I agree with you that striving for perfect is a disaster in the making. But trying hard….now that I can get behind. It says there it isn’t the level of accomplishment, but the level of effort, that is important. Not even a perfect level of trying but a simple level of hard. Not super hard, not laizze faire, but just…trying hard.
    And I’m glad you no longer try to be perfect yourself 🙂 The result is that you have become perfect…in Him.

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    • „And I’m glad you no longer try to be perfect yourself🙂 The result is that you have become perfect…in Him.“

      Well said, Jeff 🙂 That’s the christian faith in a nutshell! We become more and more perfect in and through Him, if we no longer try to be perfect through ourselves, our Ego. Ego means: Edging God Out. That doesn’t work! The problem with worldly perfectionism is, that it is loveless, self abuse of the highest order… the command of Christ „Be ye perfect“ means something absolutely different. C.S. Lewis wrotes in Mere Christianity (pp. 175-76):

      “The command ‘Be ye perfect’ is not idealistic gas. Nor is it a command to do the impossible. He is going to make us into creatures that can obey that command. …If we let Him — for we can prevent Him, if we choose — He will make the feeblest and filthiest of us into a god or goddess, a dazzling, radiant, immortal creature, pulsating all through which such energy and joy and wisdom and love as we cannot now imagine, a bright stainless mirror which reflects back to God perfectly. His own boundless power and delight and goodness. The process will be long and in parts very painful; but that is what we are in for. Nothing less. He meant what He said.”

      He is going to make us !!! into god and godesses, radiant, immortal creatures, pulsating with such energy and joy and love that we cannot now imagine it. That’s the difference… 🙂

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  62. Maybe you will enjoy that article:
    https://herzzentrale.wordpress.com/2016/09/24/theosis-the-heart-of-true-christianity/

    „Ask yourself: are you truly living to the fullest or only surviving in a mechanical routine? Are you realizing your dreams? Remember: we are created in the image and the likeness of the greatest Dreamer, the Infinite One Dreamer, that we can call together with Jesus Abba-Father. It is our human destiny to dream and to realize dreams, to become „partakers of the Divine“, Co-Creators together with God. We will never be perfect, but we can become the best version of ourselves. We can grow and evolve infinitely. We can become more and more like Christ.“

    Be blessed and stay tuned :),

    Mark

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  63. Yeah, that quote about perfection is awful. I can’t even imagine. I chased perfection for a while, and it did nothing but make my life harder. It was horrible. So much better to chase your own goals in life.

    Also, I nominated you for a Black Cat Blue Sea Award on my blog. If you want to participate, go check it out, and let me know!

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    • Voltaire said it very well: „The best is the enemy of the good“. If we want to be the best, perfect, we will never be good enough and we will miss all the good divine gifts in our life. And we will miss the opportunity of true love, because it sees the beauty of imperfection. „To love someone means to see him as God intended him.“ (Dostoyevsky) Perfectionism is without love and mercy and therefore evil, it is a demon. And it destroys the playful and joy-filled souls of childs, it distort our pure being in the image and likeness of God.

      We are not only enough, we are CHILDS OF GOD 😉

      Be blessed,

      Mark

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    • Hi there friend! Oh my gosh thank you so much for the nomination! what an honor:) and so true-much better to chase our own goals! Hope you’re having a beautiful weekend! Hugs and love xox

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    • Yes, we can „perfecting ourselves to death“ (the psychatrist Richard Winter wrote a book with that title), that is unhealthy perfectionism. But it is also important to see, that the yearning for perfection that we feel, is not only a defect, it can also be seen positively as a hint of what we were meant to be (creatures who mirrors God) and even the greatest atheist and materialist has such a yearning for love, truth and freedom. The christian perspective is, that each person is made in the image of God, but because of the Fall we know each is less than they were meant to be.

      And now we yearn for „the glorious freedom of the children of God“ (Rom 8: 18-25) and we hope that „our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us“.

      „Perfect body. Perfect clothes. Perfect family. Perfect house. Perfect job. We strive for excellence in all areas of our lives. And there’s nothing wrong with a healthy, mature pursuit of excellence. But what begins as healthy and normal can sometimes become neurotic and abnormal, leading to debilitating thoughts and behaviors:

      * eating disorders
      * anxiety and depression
      * obsession and compulsions
      * fear of failure
      * relational dysfunction
      InPerfecting Ourselves to Death, Richard Winter explores the positive and negative effects of perfectionism on our lives. He looks at the seductive nature of perfectionism as it is reflected in today’s media. He examines the price and perils of perfectionism. And he explores the roots of perfectionism, delving into what originally awakens this drive in us. After analyzing the negative feelings and defeatist behaviors that unhealthy perfectionism births, he provides practical strategies for how to change. “The important thing to see,” writes Winter, “is that we are to strive to become better people, not just to be content with who we are or how we measure up to the standards of the culture around us.” For Christians this means becoming more like Christ in every area of our lives.“
      https://www.amazon.de/Perfecting-Ourselves-Death-Bridges-Wholeness/dp/0830832599/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1474759807&sr=8-1&keywords=perfecting+ourselves+to+death

      Blessings to you,
      Mark

      Reply

  65. I enjoyed your message. I was just reading my first Brother Lawrence book about keeping the focus on God, even during our mundane activities. Perfection is of no consequence if we do not pursue God in all we do. It is God we need to please, not man. Everything we do should be done to the glory of God – even cleaning toilets. He will bless you, strengthen you, comfort you. He will rock your world in ways you can not imagine.

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  67. Seeking God. His heart and will is what we ought to do.
    It being a Sunday here in Kenya, I’ll find time and attend a church service.
    This was a great blog post.
    Thank you

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  69. One saying I have always found difficult to swallow is: Practice makes perfect.It sets students up for failure. I always ask my students to try their best effort. And my revised version of the quote is: ‘Practice makes for the best job you can possibly do. That’s all I will ask of you’. Thank you. Take care.

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  70. Chasing God is an adventure for sure and a tough one at that. I think the hardest thing is being comfortable in the fact that we are made in his image and a loved creation of his.We forget that and chase after things that just don’t matter.

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  72. Agree, agree, AGREE! Your little charges are blessed that you are their nanny, and your future children will be blessed with a wonderful role model and wise, loving teacher of a mother. When I read this post, my first reaction is, “Thanks a lot, Mom.” I still struggle with so much anger, hate, and blame toward my parents and the way they raised me, and my mom was (and is) the perfectionist’s perfectionist. When I listen to her now and remember her then, my teeth clench, my face scrunches, my toes curl, and I literally get a pain in my chest. Then, I hate myself for holding onto my bitterness and resentment, because, you know, I’m a perfectionist, and not only do I expect my parents to be perfect, I expect myself to be perfect at accepting, forgiving, and loving them in their imperfection. What a trap. It is a death trap, and I’ve felt my heart particularly shriveling up since my last trip home. The only way to break the cycle is prayer and surrender, especially praying for the people who hurt me. Anyway, that’s what I was thinking of when I read your post. Sending you hugs. xoxo

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    • Thank you so much Lulu! Aw you’re so sweet. Yeah perfectionism is so hard to let go of but you’re right-prayer and surrender is the way to break free. It’s so awesome that you’re recognizing that:) sending massive hugs my friend. Hugs and love xox

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  75. O.k. late response but I do like the recovery allowing you to be who you’d always been… I only gave up chasing perfection a couple of months ago in favor of chasing God. The concept of trying to be perfect consumed me and the guilt of not being able to attain it destroyed me….

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    • Thank you so much for this reflection. 🙂 yes chasing God is always the best thing to do. Otherwise, we just end up exhausted and defeated. Thanks for stopping by! Hugs and love xox

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  76. Great stuff. Open yourself up to Jesus who is our perfection, and you bloom like a flower. We even generate real goodness without Him. Grace takes the pressure off, right?

    Thank you,
    Gary

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  77. Here’s the thing though, God is perfection. Our natural drive is to seek to be like God. Sometimes, that can be a bad thing (see Genesis), but sometimes it can be a good thing. In Colossians 1, Paul talks about standing before God without blemish through the sacrifice of Jesus. It is important to note, of course, that our pursuit of perfection is meaningless if Jesus isn’t involved, guiding us and covering our blemishes. I read a really nice article about how we exhibit this drive to be like God through creativity. Let me know if I can post a link to the article here.

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  78. I agree with you that chasing perfection leads to all kinds of downfalls. When I sought my own burner name in 2013 I finally chose Lloyd The great, just for that reason. I don’t really want to be perfect or the best or whatever, but I do seek to be great, just great, that’s all. better than just OK, and notable. Have a great day. Llove Lloyd

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  84. I don’t think I could have said it better even if I tried. I am sitting here getting ready for church and my praise is about to rise out of my bones. I have had such a up and down week that I often questioned why, what, how come. But, it is the moment that this said it best. Chasing perfection…bondage. Chasing God…freedom thank you for the like and this amazing clarity 💋ChrysseD

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  85. I liked this Quote a lot: “If there is one thing I’m going to teach my future kids (God willing), it is not to chase perfection”. I like the positive vibe that you have when using the words: My Future Kids. It is so nice that you are considering having kids and be with them and for them always.

    Great post, thank you for sharing. I hope you would read mine and give share with me your thoughts on it.
    https://nbrijay.com/2016/10/14/when-i-wake-up-from-this-bad-dream/

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  87. Reblogged this on Special Creation Woman and commented:
    Until halfway through the article, I actually loved the quote this author was dissecting. And then I got it. This is where my life has gone so wrong for so many years. When we chase God, excellence often creeps in. But perfectionism is a quick slide to a hellish existence. Wish I had known that years earlier. Sigh!

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