Our Life in Review #3: Be excellent in all you do! But don’t fall for perfectionism.

I’m a creative. One who loves to create. I feel most alive when I am creating. 

Creating art with sugar!

 I enjoy so many different mediums. Words is one of them. I also love baking and creating beautiful cookies. 

 I love making my surroundings beautiful. I love flowers and plants. Not really my creations. I have to give God the credit on that! But I love using His beauty to fill my yard and my deck. 

My peaceful space.

I’ve recently taken up watercolor painting. What a beautiful and challenging medium! 

Attempt at watercolor

And I can’t forget photography!

I practiced on my gorgeous daughter.

My husband and I have started a business in that medium. I really want to grow and excel in that one! It’s our retirement plan! 

But probably the one I most want to focus on and grow in is writing. Words move me. When I read words that not only express ideas well, but paint vibrant pictures in my mind, my heart sings. For as long as I can remember I have been in love with words.

I grew up in a family of creatives. My dad is a sculptor and builder. He creates amazing works of art with wood, metal, plaster…pieces of things that by themselves are nothing until he brings them to life with his creativity. And he’s most happy when he’s creating. My mom taught me to sew and use fabric to creative. All of my siblings, 2 sisters and a brother are creatives. Like me, they have many mediums they explore. Music is a big one! Writing, creating, playing and singing. My brother has a habit of singing his little ones to sleep. He plays his guitar and sings songs of life over them as they are ending their day. One sister knows that God has gifted her with writing and singing music. She’s working on honoring God with her gift. My other sister creates beautiful spaces for weddings and parties and living. And that’s just one of her many talents. Both of my sisters have beautiful homes touched with their finger prints. Expressions of their creativity in the way they design their living spaces.

This past week was challenging. I really wanted to write a beautiful blog, but nothing I plunked out on my screen seemed to work. So I start making excuses. Only the excuses all sounded hollow. I’m really not too busy. I make time for what I truly want to do. It's just that too many distractions keep me from creating. But it was more than just distraction. An honest look inside brought me to an answer.

Perfectionism has swallowed my creativity.

As my children were growing up, my husband and I wanted to raise them to be excellent in all they do (#3 of this series, though not in any particular order). But that message is easily distorted by the thief Perfectionism. We would tell them to do everything they did to the best of their ability as if they were doing it for God alone. “Whatever you do, work at it with your whole being for the Lord and not for men.” Col 3:23. But often we are working more for the applause of men than for God. And we don’t always know it. Or worse, we stop working because of the fear of men. What if I’m not good enough?

I didn’t get a blog post done last week. I started this challenge strong. Determined to overcome my fear. Determined to keep meeting the deadlines. But somehow I got sidetracked. I let the thief Perfectionism in the door and his taunting paralyzed me. I sat down to write a few different times. Always with a commitment to completing something I could post. But every time I fell to the power of perfectionism and couldn’t get past the feeling that it wasn’t good enough. It wasn’t exactly what I wanted to say and certainly not how I wanted to say it. I felt crippled. And ugly. And simply not good enough. I let the thief steal from me.

Writing this now is so exposing. I’m not 100% sure I’m even going to post this. But as I think about what I wanted to teach my children about doing things well while not falling into the trap of perfectionism, I know I have to lead by example. Because they are watching. And no child ever learned what a parent said, if their actions didn’t line up. ‘Do what I say, not what I do’ is the epitome of hypocrisy.

So here’s the bottom line. Always care enough about what you are doing, whether that is being a student, being an employee, being a parent, being a blogger, being a painter, whatever it is you are doing and being, to do it with all your heart. Put your best into it. Make it matter. As if you are doing it for God himself.

Be excellent in all you do! But don’t fall for perfectionism.

I often have to choose to narrow my focus so much that God is the only one I am seeing. To use photography terms, I set my aperture to f2.8 and focus on His eyes. All the background goes into a hazy blur. What He sees is all that matters. And God is so full of love and grace toward me that what He sees in my offering is excellence. When I give Him my offering with a heart of gratitude and humility, He responds with no critique or criticism. Only joy in my gift.

This morning as I was sitting down to write this blog, I took a few minutes to listen to a message online. I had prayed earlier that God would give me a blog post. I asked for His help. I wanted Him to give me His words. I don’t want creating to be so difficult. I want it to come easy. That’s just the truth of it. But nothing of value ever comes easy.

So I’m listening to this message and he ended with a story that pierced my heart. The story I needed to hear today. He had prayed before a creative session with his worship team that God would give them a song. But in his spirit he heard God say, “Why don’t YOU give ME a song.” He felt God saying that He had put in his being the creativity, the words, the melodies, the experiences, all that they needed to write a song. Now they just needed to do it.

Tears sprang to my eyes as I realized God was saying the same thing to me. I want him to download the words as I just take dictation. And I even still believe He does that sometimes. But in this situation I felt God telling me to give HIM the gift of my creativity, my words, my heart, that He ultimately gave to me, but wants me to use. Put in my best effort. And He would be pleased with my gift. BIG lightbulb moment for me!

So this one is for you Jesus. And I pray that my kids would remember this life lesson too.