Hey Friends, how are you today? It’s a beautiful morning in my neck of the woods. The cicadas are already singing praises to our God. I love the sound of cicadas. They usually seem to herald the beauty of sunshine, hot and humid weather, which is, of course the epitome of summer. How are you today? How was your week? Were you like me, in that you found too many of your actions were controlled by your emotions, this week? Perhaps like me, you will say, “not really me, it’s these hormones”. Huh! That sounded very familiar. Did that statement remind you of Adam too? It’s too easy, isn’t it? I like perfection in my life. In my desire to have perfection, there are quite a few things I’ve failed to do. There are quite a few friends I’ve lost along the path to perfection. I’ve paid a high price for this elusive, trait. I must realize perfection in my circumstances is unattainable. Perfection in people is an impossible and unfair expectation. Perfection in me is beyond my reach. Should I then just give up? Should I lower the expectations and blame ‘others’? Should I just claim my humanity and stop trying? I cannot have perfection that is an unfeasible goal. Yet there is a difference between ‘having’ perfection and ‘being’ perfect. I am perfect in Christ and daily I should be striving toward ‘becoming’ perfect. That’s the standard the Lord has placed before us.
My husband gives our girls this bit of wisdom, “if you want to attain 100%, you don’t strive to reach 100%. You set the bar at 150% or higher, then you are more likely to obtain that 100%”. Of course, usually he’s referring to their academic achievements, but the same can be applied to our spiritual lives. It’s the easy way out, when we blame ‘others’ for our faults. It’s not hard to find faults in others. Say it with me, “no one is _________”. Blaming ‘others’ does not bring peace or healing. It does not bring repentance or forgiveness. It does not bring restoration. It most definitely does bring spiritual growth.
The truth is Christ has called me to perfection; on my own; in my own strength; an impossible standard to attain. The beauty of it is that this standard has already been achieved. You see through the shed blood of my Savior; he bought my salvation. When the Father sees me, He sees a perfect child, He sees me through His Perfect Son. He replaced guilt and its consequences with restoration and eternal life. He brought beauty and joy to a hurt and destructive life. The price for that beauty and perfection was too great to lower the bar. It cost too much for me to say, “I can’t”. What shall we choose today, friends? Shall we choose perfection?
38 responses to “I HAVE ARRIVED!”
Brenda, I appreciate this post. More people suffer the anxiety and depression of perfectionism than we realize. “Never enough” being the mantra for myself or for others. But the blessing is that not only are we perfected in God’s eyes by Christ’s own work of redemption, we now have the freedom to give GRACE to ourselves and to others. Not excuses (your post is refreshingly accurate here), but grace. The difference is that we view our own mistakes and the mistakes of others are OPPORTUNITIES to extend Christ’s very practical love. I could never have grace for others until I learned to be comfortable with God’s grace for me in my own skin. Accepted in the Beloved. I am enjoying your posts because they make me think. Blessings to you!
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Praise the Lord and to Him be the glory. Our God is amazing. We are the ones who set most times unreasonable standard on ourselves and on others. Everything must be filtered through love and more grace
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Cute outfit!!! Beautiful posts! I have been away from my lap top for a while and have been unable to check posts easily via my phone but now that I am back on now one of the first blogs I went to read was yours! Thank you for your Christian posts and godly reminders!
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Than you, 🙏🏽 I do appreciate that sentiment 😊😊 to our great and mighty God be all the glory and praise. It’s good to have you back 😁
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GM, I love your cheerfulness and thank you for viewing my post the other day.
ashes4him
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😁😁😁 thank you 😊 the Lord likes me to be joyful and my happiness is in Him
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Amen! keep up the smile and wonderful spirit. You inspire me to do the same. ashes4him
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Thank you so much for writing this, forgiveness for perceived wrong doings of others, is the thing I struggle most with. Thank you for reminding me I need to ponder this some more this morning! Xx
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it certainly isn’t easy to forgive others when they’ve caused us pain, that’s why we need the Lord. Through Tim and because of His love and forgivesness to us, we can and should forgive others
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Your posts are a joy to read and super inspiring. “Yet there is a difference between ‘having’ perfection and ‘being’ perfect.” Love this!
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To God be the glory 😀 having a ‘perfect’ life is an illusion goal, but becoming perfect is what we’ve been called to, as the people of God
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Great scriptures. If we listen to God we will all arrive.
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Amen! 🙏🏽 we can’t go wrong, when we obey the Word of God. Thanks for commenting 😊
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The cicadas are singing here as well! I have loved that sound for a lot of years! It goes back to a time when I was at camp, in full nature surroundings, with the cicadas singing in a huge choir, and feeling the peace of God around me. I still love listening to them! 🙂
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Me too 😁😁 a few of my friends can’t stand it, but I love it! They signal of beautiful day
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This is beautiful. For a long time, I strived for perfection. I wanted the “perfect” life. But I heard God tell me to “be still and know.” I took that advice and things are starting to fall into place. I wish I would have listened to the Lord earlier!
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😂😂😂 Do we ever listen the first time? Usually it takes multiple warnings and sometimes harsh consequences for us to take note. You are certainly not alone in the desiring of the ‘perfect life’. May we continue to see the Lord’s faithfulness
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Thank you so much for your kind words. May the Lord bless you too!
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We are in the processing of becoming perfect in our practice as we are perfect in the sight of God
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Wow! So very true. I’ve gained some spiritual wisdom through this post! Blessings to you my sister! Continue to shine for Jesus! ❤
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Thank you Tammy, may the Lord be glorified. In Christ we are perfect; our position. Now in our practice we need to become perfect
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You’re very welcome! Amen! Indeed,we ought to daily!
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I really love this Brenda, I did a similar post because I hear women talk all the time about Pinterest, how no one is perfect but then there’s that verse, God’s perfect is much better than ours and He’s not pressuring us like we do ourselves, He truly is patient. Maybe, I have arrived too.
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😂😂😂 when our Father looks at us, He sees His Son, who is perfect. In Christ we are indeed perfect (we have arrived 😂😂). Now all we have to do is work on the becoming
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That is a FANTASTIC picture, by the way 🙂 Oh those pesky hormones….I have to admit, that I do use this excuse too often. Sure, they do play a role, but I also have a duty to exercise some self-control (perfection). Thank you for the reminder (my family thanks you as well, lol) God Bless!
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It’s too easy to use the hormones; they can’t talk back (thank God) 🤣🤣 but that’s the easy way out. Our God never promised easy, but He did promise that He would always be with us
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Just reading about this in Romans this am – I’m righteous in Him alone!
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Amen and 🙏🏽 there is no other way. We are perfect ONLY in Christ. He stands for us, so that when the Father looks at us, He sees His Precious Son. Thank God
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Lovely!💖..amen!
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May the Lord be glorified. Let’s choose to be perfect
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Amen and Amen!
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May the Lord get the glory. Too many times, we are content with mediocre Christian Living, simply because we’ve determined that we can’t.. thanks for commenting
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Made perfect in Christ! Thank you Brenda. Xx
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We are perfect in Him, now let’s choose to be perfect in our practice
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I was just thinking one night this week as I took a walk with my husband how much I LoVeD the sound of cicadas. Such a great post. Love reading. God bless you.
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Yeah! I love it. The sound is so summer to me 😁 our God is amazing and wise, He thinks of even the small things 😊
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Very happy that you arrived to a wonderful place safely. My day went well – mostly spent deciding on what to blog about next 🙂
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Now that can be difficult and time-consuming. May the Lord richly bless you and give you wisdom in your blog
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