Where do we get the impression that we have to be perfect?
We *can’t* be — WON’T be — perfect this side of heaven. This is OK!
We say we understand this, yet again and again we get discouraged (or worse!) as we try to apply ourselves to the Thin Within principles; as we try again and again to live in freedom from being controlled by food, our desire eating, and carrying more weight than we feel we should. We get discouraged because we can’t seem to string together two “good” days in a row.
Let’s understand though: Our longing for perfection is a desire for Heaven! That is a GOOD thing! God has placed this longing deep within us (Ecclesiastes 3:11). But it is misguided and misdirected when we think we can and should be perfect here and now. In fact, it leads us perilously close to exalting self and a posture of pride.
Let’s STOP it!
This insistence for perfection will always lead to pride, self-exaltation, or conversely to self-condemnation. Neither side of this pendulum are the place where God wants us to land.
We need to extend the same grace to ourselves that Christ does. We need to allow the cross of Christ to be our focus and our stabilizer.
YES, grace teaches us to pursue godliness (Titus 2:11,12), but no where in Scripture are we told that the expectation is perfection this side of the grave.
Let’s relish, instead, the joy of being a human in process.
Let’s delight in Philippians 1:6 growth! That God will continue to do the work he began in us until HE completes it.
It is our job to cooperate.
If you ask people who have released weight and maintain their new healthy weight how they do it… are they “perfect” in applying the principles of eating between 0 and 5 and the other Keys to Conscious Eating, they will ALL tell you…NO, we haven’t been perfect! We still have times when we overeat, or “sneak” a taste of food before we are at 0 or even complete days where we never wait to be hungry! YES! It is true! Can you imagine? 🙂 In fact, it isn’t uncommon for “a successful person’s” weight to vacillate slightly in response to these challenges. God takes us to new levels of processing things that we thought were “over and done” and in our past! He keeps us dependent on Him sometimes by showing us just how much growth there is yet ahead.
I have been in such a season and I hope to share more about that in the days ahead. But I will tell you now that, instead of beating myself up for it (we can’t hate ourselves into positive change!), I try to take what Paul has said to heart:
Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect,
but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.
Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it.
But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead,
I press on toward the goal to win the prize
for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
– Philippians 3:12-14
There are principles in this passage that apply to me in this pursuit. I don’t think the goal or prize is a thin body, though…the goal or prize is a heart given TOTALLY to the Lord, where my longing for Him far surpasses my longing for brownies fresh out of the oven, or to be a size ____ and able to wear my “skinny jeans” comfortably.
Do you need to give yourself permission today to let go of “failures?” DO IT.
- Press ON.
- Take HOLD.
- FORGET the past.
- STRAIN toward what is ahead.
Let’s refuse to indulge in the pity party stuff that we sometimes do when we are discouraged.
GRAB THIS MOMENT for the Lord!
Be FUTURE focused!
Invite him to sanctify you through and through…this is to be our goal, after all…not our skinny jeans. Welcome his invasion into the private spaces where you allow food to be your Comforter. Let him convince you that every single solitary babystep “Godward” you take on this journey is a wonderful offering to Him that delights his heart.
It is ok not to be perfect. He IS doing a work in you…that sounds pretty awesome to me.
