So What If You’re Not Perfect?

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12:9-10)
 
In her book, The Gifts of Imperfection, Brene Brown says something strange about our imperfections. She says they’re gifts. She spent years researching thousands of people – from age 18-87. Not one of them was perfect. Every one of them struggled with the difficulties life could bring, and yet as imperfect as their lives were, they were thriving.  
 
Why was this the case? Well, it wasn’t because they were doing all the right things – working hard, following the rules, and raising their kids by the book like she imagined. They were not victorious because they were striving for perfection. Instead, what she found out was that the people who thrived were those who had accepted their imperfections and viewed them as gifts, not as curses; as assets, not as liabilities; as strengths, not as weaknesses.  
 
They overcame because they had the holy ability to say, so what if I don’t have a picture-perfect life? So what if I don’t strike all the right notes or have the fairytale life by family and friends think I should have? My imperfections don’t mean that I’m doomed or destined to fail. Instead, they point me to the One who lives in me, and who, despite my imperfections, uses what others think is negative and turns it into a positive.  
 
When you take a long, hard look at your life, you may not have what the world says you should have in order to succeed. You may not come from a two-parent household. You may not have a college degree. You may not be married with 2.5 kids, a dog, and a white house with a picket fence. But the journey of life is not about having it all together. It’s not about checking every box on the perfection checklist. It’s not about having what others say you need. Life is about thriving even when you don’t have what people say you need. Life is about pursuing your Heavenly Father, even when the pursuit of your goals and dreams isn’t working out the way you thought it would.