Are you exhausted trying to reach for perfection? Do you find yourself in a battle where no matter how much you do – It somehow just isn’t good enough? How about that sinking feeling inside when you pull off near perfection but feel like a fake to others?
Confession – I am a recovering perfectionist, a work in progress.
Honestly, that was even stressful to say because my car isn’t clean and my pantry is atrocious. So how could one claim to be reaching for perfect when obviously they failed before starting?
Back in our early days of church attending our well-connected friends in the church convinced us that we should host a Bible study. Our home was determined to be the best meeting location.
These were the days when looking good was pretty darn important to me. I found such worth when people commented on how well behaved my children were or how nice I kept my home.
So this was going to be a major endeavor on my part each week to get my house just perfect for guests.
Striving for excellence was my motto.
However, my family would attest I seemed to blur the lines of striving for excellence and perfection.
“Healthy striving is self-focused: “How can I improve?” Perfectionism is other-focused: “What will they think?”
? Brené Brown,
The Unexpected – One near disaster for the facade of perfection
Let me tell you about one particular night. Arriving home from work in a huff -a quick hello to the kids and off I went in a flurry. Picking up speed as I went along room to room turning items just so. In my mind, I could hear myself checking off my list. Clean towels folded correctly in the bathroom, music playing, Candles lit, just the right lights turned on, and of course, the vacuum run in the places people would see the carpet. As time began ticking things were rapidly being shoved out of sight.
Hospitality in my home was taken to another level, one I would not recommend.
Do not pretend some of you do not know what I mean, you do.
All I had to do was clean the last little bit in the kitchen and get the kids upstairs. Growling under my breath because this was such an ordeal to get things ready and my husband was once again running late or was it the madness he was trying to avoid?
