Perfectly Imperfect

This year has been absolutely crazy. I feel like collectively we have been saying that since 2020. Seriously though, 2022 seems to have had it all so far.

From moving house at the beginning of the year, with nowhere to go, and then ending up with my parents, to our daughter’s wedding to the whole family finally catching COVID, to my husband changing jobs after nine years, it seems to have been one thing after another with a cherry on top.

She’ll Be Right..Right?

I went back to Uni after a semester break, thinking it would all be smooth sailing. I mean I’m working full time, I have added two hours of travel time to my day, what could go wrong?

I started the semester with COVID, followed by a sinus infection, followed by bronchitis. For about a minute I still thought I could handle it all fine, catching up would be easy. I like to present an image of having it all together that suits my perfectionist tendencies.

The reality is, that I got two extensions for my first assignment and I’m three weeks behind in content. The extra travel as well as study, plus full-time work is a hard slog. My husband is doing pretty much all the cooking at the moment. Even without being sick, it’s impossible to do it all.

Sometimes in the world of Instagram and even Christianity, we present an image of being able to do everything. Ultimately it’s not helpful, either to ourselves or anyone else.

I can’t do all the things, but by the grace of God, I can do the things He’s called me to do, even when it’s hard. Sometimes that means saying no to things. Sometimes that means letting go of things for a minute, like housework. Sometimes that means dropping things to the bottom of the priority list so that things like daily time with God are at the top.

It’s impossible to perfectly balance everything. I don’t think we are supposed to, particularly not if we choose to follow the example Jesus lays out. Matthew 28 speaks of coming to him for our rest and giving him our heavy burdens. It’s hard to do that through a facade of keeping it all together and perfectionism.

Learning to Embrace the Messy

If you are finding yourself chasing an unattainable image of perfection, spend some time working out where the pressure to be perfect is coming from. I love the phrase perfectly imperfect. Life is meant to be a little messy, I’m over here learning to embrace it.

Lorrene McClymont is a photographer and writer from South Australia. You can connect with her on Instagram here.

You can follow her devotional Instagram account here.

You can check out her Photography work, previous blogs, and order prints here .