Imperfect: a life story

Just something to consider:

Moments of imperfection remind us who we are:

We are sinners - imperfect because of nature, our choices

We are a hot mess and have little self-control or patience or love or joy or hope or faith or any other qualities that God constantly possess that we often lack. 

We chose this - we make choices because that's the kind of God He is... he didn't want mindless robots, he wanted relationships with us... and relationships are messy. Every time we sin, we fall, we betray the trust of others around us and we smack Christ in the face because each failure of ours was a lashing, a hit of the hammer on the nail. 

BUT our God is the strongest, the most courageous, the most selfless, and the most compassionate God there is. He loves us so much - even through our pain, our faults, our flaws, our mistakes, our short tempers, our dirty mouths, and our habits - HE LOVES US THROUGH IT ALL. And he makes us new every morning - he makes us better- he makes us beautiful. 

Think of a door - but not just any door. Think of a door that has chipped paint, imperfections, rough edges. We are that door. We have scars and pasts that mark us up. When we focus on the rough spots, we lose sight of the fact that those marks don't define us. We are all flawed but our purpose is still clear - we are a door. Splinters or chipping paint don’t make a door any less of a door. Don't focus on those things that make us human because we forget so easily that our true purpose is to act as a door between the world and our God - we introduce others to him through our scars because people who don't have hope long for those who have struggled with the same things they have. People who are hopeless are looking for love - they want something that is familiar. They look for people who won't make fun of their scars because those imperfect but loving people know what it's like to have chips and splinters. 

We bend, but we never have to break because he is strong enough to take our burdens. We will still have struggles, we'll have moments when we lose our tempers or when we turn from him because we're angry at our life circumstances. But he will always be there and when we focus on him we will realize that through our mistakes we learn, we grow, we inspire others to do the same. Through our failings, we can be brought closer and we can draw others near too IF and ONLY IF we can respond properly to our flaws. We all know our failings but we must proactively look for preventative ways to overcome them and live with them as things that don’t hinder us but instead make us stronger. We must follow the will of God and read his word and he will tell us how to respond to these situations. We won't always respond perfectly, but we will continue to learn every day until we are taken up and glorified with the one who makes everything good. Accept your flaws. Learn to watch for the warning signs that you're going down a path of bad thoughts or dangerous actions. Ask God for the wisdom, understanding, patience, and strength to resist Satan. That is how you learn to live with the mess we call our lives - our failings, our mistakes - our HUMANITY. And then you can discover true joy as you accept you for the person God made you to be and grow closer to your good, good father.