Perfectionism is a Joy Killer

Are you a perfectionist? Do you know one? Well, I can be a perfectionist and now I am seeing it in my daughter. Ugh. She has this terrible habit right now that if there are coloring pages that have any scribbles on them or she messes up and goes out of the lines she refuses to finish them. So you can imagine how many uncolored, wasted pages there are in her books. So this week we’ve been working on this. We spent an hour and a half last week finishing ONE picture. I’m a firm believer in finishing what we start and think it’s a terrible habit/character flaw (whatever you want to call it) when we don’t. So it’s really two issues, finishing things and being a perfectionist I suppose. Anyway, I’ve just been witnessing how only seeing the “bad” spots (going out of the lines) is limiting her from seeing the beauty of the picture when it’s done, even with those “imperfections.” It takes the joy out of coloring for her (because she’s never pleased unless it’s perfect) and the joy out of it for me because all I hear is complaining and see a lot of unfinished work. I know she’s only 4 but the habits we start now will only be carried with us into our future if we don’t work to change them.

Having children is really like holding a mirror up to yourself and sometimes it’s just not so pretty. I’m reminding myself this week that God has said, “My grace is sufficient for you and my strength is made perfect in weakness.” In weakness?! Yes, in weakness. I don’t need to be perfect, my kids don’t need to be perfect. In fact I don’t really like being around someone who is “perfect”  or thinks they are so why am I striving for that anyway? In our house we’ll strive to do our best and let God do the rest. I don’t want perfectionism stealing our joy. Does it ever steal yours?