Perfection is God’s Business
By Bernadette A. Moyer

Life isn’t perfect; it wasn’t designed to be perfect. Life is real. It is real life lessons in love, joy, peace, hurt, loss and grief. We are afforded a wide range of experiences in our lifetime.

Who is to say which ones are good and what is bad. Every experience is intended as an experience and a lesson. The question we need to ask ourselves, are we learning? Are we getting “it” whatever “it” is?

“If you look for perfection, you’ll never be content.” Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina

Nothing in life is all good or all bad; no person is all good or all bad either. We are complicated people with a happy healthy side and sometimes we are not happy nor are we healthy and whole. No one gets through this life unscathed.

We celebrate the birth of a new baby and we see 100% pure innocence. A new life that is fresh and clean and unharmed by life experiences. We see an old man and we listen to his stories of his youth and his loves and we try and imagine it. Our hearts could never have known what we could not see.

The more we age, the older we get, the more tattered we become by life and from our life experiences. As parents we love and support our children, knowing there will come a day when they are no longer our children but their own adult.

“Parents give their kids two gifts; one is roots and the other wings.” Author Unknown

As friends we love and support one another, we try and straddle that balance that line between healthy support and enabling. We want to be supportive but we want to be real and honest too. As a life partner, a husband and a wife come together to create a union, a family, both sides know that there will be an ending. A parting at some point in time even if it holds up in this lifetime, there will be an ending, “until death do us part.”

We aren’t designed or built to last forever; we aren’t designed to be perfect. We are meant to be real. Happiness like grief can come and can go; being content can be sustainable. Finding contentment wherever you are, whether it is in your happiness or in your grief can be the real trick.

Knowing that whatever we are experiencing, this too shall pass. Nothing lasts forever, not us nor any of our relationships or experiences. Everything has a beginning, middle and an ending. It is the life cycle.

We can’t waste this lifetime worrying about what we have no control over or what will happen when we are gone. The only thing that matters is to be present in this moment in time. This is all we have, this moment, this life that is not perfect but so very real.

Chasing happiness and perfection is just that a chase, coming to a place of contentment can be lasting and sustainable. “Contentment as defined as mentally or emotionally satisfied with things as they are, assenting to or willing to accept circumstances, peace of mind, mental or emotional satisfaction.” Dictionary.com

The Bible says about contentment, “Godliness with contentment is great gain.” (Timothy 6:6) our physical circumstances of poverty or riches does not necessarily reflect our contentment or discontentment with God nor should it with ourselves. Being content doesn’t mean we are giving way to growing and becoming more successful, it means we appreciate the process and know that we are where we are supposed to be for this moment in time.

The challenge isn’t when we are standing at the top of the mountain but rather in the climbing to get there. The experience is in the climb not in the arrival. I am happy in my life right now but more than that I am content. I know that I am right where I am supposed to be, this is a stage and a phase and that it too shall pass. The good passes as does the grief. Nothing was meant to last forever. This should give us the incentive to get every little drop out of every single experience. Take it for what it is, a lesson and a moment in time, not perfect but real.

“For we brought nothing into the world, and we take nothing out of it.” (Timothy 6:7) Nothing was meant to last forever, it was meant to be appreciated. We were meant to be appreciated and we should strive for contentment.

“When all the details fit in perfectly, something is probably wrong with the story.” Charles Baxter

“I am careful not to confuse excellence with perfection. Excellence, I can reach for; perfection is God’s business.” Michael J. Fox

Imperfectly yours, Bernadette

Bernadette on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/bernadetteamoyer

All books are available at Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble