-
SANCTIFICATION: Perfected…No Longer Flawed
I was once an uptight perfectionist. Yes, I admit it. My whole self-image depended upon being perfect in grades, piano performance and whatever got me awards for achievement. Yet, my flaws kept getting in the way of getting straight A’s one six weeks so that I missed out on the “straight A’s” award for that school year. I was horrible in athletics so PE was my nemesis. Then, in college, physics knocked me down big time—I just couldn’t see how to get the answers to those problems. My flaws were ever before me, and I sobbed when I couldn’t achieve perfection—which happened a lot. My self-image was tied to a…
-
Free Indeed!
Recently I had the privilege of speaking in a women’s prison. I shared my story which I call, “How to Handle the Things You Hate But Can’t Change.” (How’s that for a topic of interest for incarcerated people?) But then I was able to speak briefly about what we have in common, a situational loss of freedom. I have lost the ability—the freedom—to walk, and they have temporarily lost the ability—the freedom—to walk out of lockup. Still, even while imprisoned by our situations, Jesus offers true freedom that has nothing to do with our circumstances. He promised to His disciples, “You will know the truth, and the truth will set…
-
The Great Pains of Perfectionism
Some wag has said that a perfectionist is someone who takes great pains . . . and gives them to others. Once I asked my Facebook friends for examples of perfectionism and controlling behavior. Ohboyohboy, is that ever a problem! I’ve never had so many responses to a question! Here are just a few (and you can tell that there is a specific person attached to every example): Doing all the household chores because that way they will be done right. Then feeling resentful because no one ever offers to help and here she is, doing all the work herself. Reading Every. Single. Greeting card. To make sure they picked…
-
Want to Destroy Your Family? Be a Perfectionist
This week I'm happy to have as my guest Dani Ross. She's a wife and a mother of three young boys living in Flower Mound, Texas, pursuing a double masters degree at Dallas Theological Seminary in Christian Leadership and Systematic Theology: I began my journey as a mom like most, staring into my baby’s expectant eyes with great anticipation for a sweet, sweet life to come. I was ready to tackle the wild, unknown world of parenting in a life I had preplanned. Expertly researched. The years of comparison with those who had come before me provided me with a nice tidy list of “I’ll nevers” kept in my back pocket.…
-
Confessions of a Church Critic
“For by the grace given to me I say to every one of you not to think more highly of yourself than you ought to think, but to think with sober discernment, as God has distributed to each of you a measure of faith” (Romans 12:3). When I first considered writing Christian articles/columns or a blog online the following thought came to mind: “Wouldn’t it be neat to visit different churches and then write a column rating that church? I could tell others what was cool about the church, where they were on the straight path, where they were straying, where tradition was overriding biblical teaching, where they had adopted…
