Slaying perfectionism with the sword of truth

Today I am pleased to recommend an outstanding devotional book for women. It's a Wonderful (Imperfect) Life by Joan C. Webb offers freedom to the gal like me who tends toward perfectionism. Most of us do, to some degree, recoil frequently after thoughts that we could have, should have, would have done better on a task or in a situation. If you're like me, you fight with overanalyzing your own mess-ups, instead of rejoicing in God's grace and His promise to work everything into good. (Rom 8:28) Joan's easy-reading reflections help free the mind to focus on God's unconditional love.

Joan is a recovering workaholic and perfectionist who communicates a message of freedom and renewal, coaching and teaching others to become who God has gifted them to be. She speaks nationally and internationally and has appeared on Christian radio and television. Joan is the author or coauthor of magazine articles, curriculum and eleven books, including The Relief of Imperfection. She even wrote study notes for The Women of Faith Study Bible. And believe it or not, I met Joan on Twitter!

Here's a sample devotional she has allowed me to copy and paste for you here. Another devotional will be posted on Samaritian Diva's blog tomorrow, Nov. 6 at www.samaritiandiva.com. There's an ongoing "blog tour" you can follow, and the schedule is here. Copies of the book can be purchased by clicking on this link.

Do It Again

Luke 5:5-6: “Master,” Simon replied, “we worked hard all last night and didn’t catch a thing. But if you say so, we’ll try again.” And this time their nets were so full they began to tear! (NLT)

From my window just now, I watched a golfer prepare and then strike his little white ball only to flub it. It popped into the rough three feet to the right of where he stood. He slumped and shook his club. Then he walked over to the ball’s new position and hit again. It sailed through the air, over the bunker and landed near the hole.

Sometimes we do it well. (It might be parenting, working, exercising, praying, teaching—or whatever.) Other times even our best efforts yield less than stellar results and we slump inwardly.

I think Simon Peter probably wasn’t thrilled when he and his co-workers worked all night with nothing to show. As a professional, surely he practiced the latest tricks of his trade. Still no fish. Yet when Jesus said try again, he did.

We can, too. Like the disappointed golfer, we can walk a little further, steady our stance and try again. Our actions won’t always be flawless, since only God is perfect every moment of every day. Yet we can listen and obey his promptings to do it again.

Lord, I’m bummed, but I’m willing to try again. Please honor my efforts and bring worthwhile results.

Making It Personal: So you flubbed? I challenge you to try again—consistently for the next 3 weeks. What will you do? Cement your decision by writing it here and calling a caring friend to share.

Less Perfectly Penned

“Less perfection, more production.” This is one of those repeated messages from God in my life. Do you get repeated messages, too? I wonder sometimes if I am the only slow learner needing so much reteaching!

My first lesson in this area was in delegation. As a young teacher, Sally Beard, a teaching teammate in Lubbock Texas, saw me measuring the spaces between the perfectly-cut letters I had just made for my bulletin board one day and told me I did NOT have time to do that. She did not hesitate to mentor me by sharing some of her effective practices in running a classroom, and I am forever grateful that she cared enough to do so. Needless to say, she was a devoted follower of Jesus and a lover of His soul and of His people. I learned that giving up control of the bulletin board to some trustworthy moms freed me to focus on that which was of greater priority, while also valuing their gifts, service and investment in their children’s lives. It promoted both productivity and relationships. How cool is that?

A second lesson learned was from another fellow educator who took the time to mentor me in school administration. I was the Assistant Principal to Julie Combs, a highly-respected elementary school principal in town. I remember noting how her emails were void of punctuation and capital letters on occasion, and how her plans and notes were oftentimes a somewhat messy combination of typing and handwriting. Neither of these examples appeared perfect to me, yet they were both productive. I learned that the time it would have taken her to perfect her projects was sometimes not worth the payoff. Instead, lack of perfecting sometimes produced a larger payoff, because it provided her more time for other priorities.

As such, I am considering writing less perfectly more often in this venue. Please let me know what you think! Also, if you do not have a blog account set up so you can comment, I encourage you to do so. It isn’t difficult to do, and it will allow more than just me to read your comments, promoting more community and conversation. Many of you email me directly, and I love that. But I’d also love for you all to connect with one another. The purpose of my blog should be more than an outlet for my very opinionated nature. It must be about promoting greater good in the world, and our collective opinions will do more to accomplish that than any one person’s could do alone.