joyful2beeblogs

When I was about 11 or 12 years old, I thought perfection was something I was supposed to pursue. I read in the Bible, “Be ye perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” That is a high goal to set. (I know some readers may not be Christians, please just read on and you may still enjoy the points.)
Thankfully, I found out later that there was a different meaning to that verse. We are not expected to be perfect. The truer interpretation of this verse I believe is from this link: http://www.ligonier.org/learn/qas/when-jesus-says-be-ye-perfect-your-father-heaven-p/
In the first place, the word that is translated “perfect” literally means “be complete.”….In fact, the basic call to a person in this world is to be a reflection of the character of God.
So for years partly because my desire to be a “good girl;” partly because of my misunderstanding of the above verse; and partly because it was my nature to please, I tried with abject failure to be perfect.
Finally, someone explained that the verse meant something a little more reasonable. But because of (or perhaps in spite of) my earlier misunderstanding, my quest for perfection evolved into being conscientious to do my best. In school, many of my teachers’ comments on my report card attested that I was very “conscientious.”
But in the process, I became overly critical of myself. I studied hard, worrying about my grades; as a teenager, worrying about my weight, my looks, my pimples, the lack of a boyfriend, never being a “star” at anything, and I even worried about making mistakes that hadn’t even happened yet!
I think in my head I still thought I had to be perfect. Maybe I thought I had to earn love? So this left me with a feeling of inadequacy with a resultant lack of self-confidence.
Do you have trouble accepting compliments? Do you belittle your accomplishments? Why???
I believe that you have skills, talents, or abilities that make you who you are. They may not have the same skills and abilities that others have; they may be very unique and rare. You need to stop looking for imaginary faults in yourself and see the marvelous human that you are or are becoming.
Now, as an older woman, looking back over my life, I see that I have been through a lot of trials, losses, triumphs, and adapted to them all. I am truly an amazing person with talents, gifts, and wisdom, just like everyone else.
So what would be the first step to preventing the downward spiral of self doubt; or to climbing out of that downward spiral? You need to stop looking for the imperfections in your looks, nature, life, etc. You need to see the perfections or positive attributes of your soul, mind, body, and life.
Look at these two mirrors I fell in love with and bought at thrift stores. You are looking at them symbolically from the distance most people see you from. See anything wrong with them?

Now look closely below at the tiny cracks in the mirror.

We all have faults and imperfections. It is better to focus on our own positive nature, skills or personality and see the positive and negative in ourselves.