I had one of those days last week. You know - the kind of day where everything from getting gas to cooking dinner seems to take forever and you're late for everything and you feel like nothing you do is right? That kind of day. There is nothing quite like driving down the road and seeing the bus (which had arrived at least 10 minutes earlier than usual) start pulling away while you realize that you have no idea where the boys you are supposed to be picking up are. Thankfully a very caring mom of one of the other campers had them and everyone was waiting anxiously for me to arrive. SIGH. And that was the way the rest of the afternoon and evening went.
Days like this usually send my mind spiraling down with thoughts of what a horrible, messed up person I am. Not that those thoughts ever help the situation. Usually all they do is stress me out even more. Last week was a little different though. Yes, those thoughts still entered my mind and I did beat myself up a little, however, later that night I read a book - a children's book, mind you - about being perfect. I don't know if you've ever read How to be a Perfect Person in Just Three Days! by Steven Manes, but Ray had recommended it to me and it would be fitting that I would be getting around to reading it on this particular night.
Spoiler alert: In case you really, really, want to read the book for yourself first, it's probably best not to continue reading this post until you're done reading the book.
We meet the main character at the beginning of the story in a library. He's tired of always messing things up and disappointing his parents. As luck would have it, a book practically jumps out at him boasting about how reading it will make one a perfect person in only 3 days. On the first day, the reader is instructed to wear a crown of broccoli around their necks for an entire day. On the second day the reader is instructed to not eat or drink anything (except water or weak tea) for the entire day. Finally, on the last day, the reader is instructed to sit perfectly still and do absolutely nothing.
In case you're wondering, the point of wearing the broccoli was to get the reader over the fear of being publically ridiculed for their actions and the point of not eating, drinking, or doing anything over the next two days was to make the reader understand that in order to be absolutely perfect, you couldn't possibly live any sort of meaningful life. The conclusion? A perfect person is boring and no one wants to be around a boring person.
No, I'm not a perfect person. I often joke that I wear mostly black clothes so that you don't see the coffee and/or chocolate stains, but seriously....it's true! :D I'm sometimes late for appointments; sometimes I forget things altogether. I'm sure my posts contain some sort of grammatical/spelling errors and I often don't have the nicest thoughts or words. I could probably go on...but you get the drift.
That's why it's so important to me that on the days in which my imperfection is more noticeable than others that I remember God's amazing and awesome grace, repent, forgive myself, and move on.
In the words of Anne of Green Gables "Tomorrow is fresh, with no mistakes in it." And in the words of Paul
"....He who began a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;..."
Philippians 1:6
"Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more, 21 so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."
Romans 5:20
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