In Pursuit of Earthly Perfection

This also is but a striving after wind.

Ecclesiastes 1:17

In the workforce, there is constant pressure to be perfect. The problem is that no one does a job perfectly—everywhere there is an opportunity to mess up. We aren’t perfect, because only Jesus was perfect. We are called to give everything our best effort in Christ Jesus. Use the acronym P-E-R-F-E-C-T to find the right perspective on your job.

P – Pursue Contentment
Part of our problem is that we are conditioned to live in discontentment instead of being grateful for what we have right in front of us. As believers, we know that there is no “oops” in God’s agenda for our lives. We ride out this life knowing He is in control.

E- Expect that we will make mistakes
Jesus was the only perfect person to walk on the Earth. We will make mistakes, yet we have God’s grace to use our shortcomings to help us grow up in the faith.

R – Remind ourselves that we are a work in progress
We aren’t going to get it right every time. Yet because we belong to God, we will see His goodness in this lifetime and the next.

F – Forsake negative self-talk
We can sometimes be our worst enemy in our thought processes. In order to succeed, we must practice speaking the truth of God’s word to ourselves on a regular basis.

E – Encourage others when they’ve failed
By encouraging other people when they are down, we experience the joy of lifting others up where we’ve been. There’s a renewed hope in our own hearts when we help another person.

C- Connect ourselves with positive people
Being around positive people helps us to remain above the negative pull downward in our attitudes and outlook in life. They keep reminding us of the hope that lives within us.

T- Take away what we’ve learned from past mistakes
Our missteps remind us that we are human and prone to error. Yet if we rehearse what went wrong and learn from it, we will rise above our past and move towards a positive future.

Everyone who stops trying to be perfect and instead focuses on God’s grace in their lives will find true peace every day.