I grew up around simple, sincere people. And when I say "simple," I don't mean by any stretch of the imagination those I grew up with were simple-minded. I mean instead that those I grew up around were not terribly concerned with material or with complicated things. They were people concerned instead with raising good, well-adjusted children. With providing for their families without needing to be the most apparently rich on the block. And I often forget--until I come home for a weekend such as this one--that they were, most importantly, second families. Other houses where I could wander in barefoot. Other mothers, fathers, siblings. Other people who cared then and still care now about what I choose to do with my life.
They have always been people who acted in accordance with what they believed, without slapping others upside the head with their beliefs (metaphorically speaking, of course). And if, as the scriptures say, "by their fruits ye shall know them," I find it impossible to disbelieve Church doctrines and teachings. Because the people I grew up with were not perfect, but they were and still are good. These people have flaws, mind you, and they know it. Some of them are impatient; some of them get testy; some of them gossip a little more than perhaps they should. But that doesn't make them any less lovable, and that doesn't mean they aren't trying.
Lately I've been struggling with some of my beliefs, perhaps because I have been thinking that it's all too hard. But I realized yesterday that I've been struggling because I've been thinking that it's too hard to be perfect and it's too hard to have perfect faith. So this Memorial Day weekend, I'm grateful for reminders that the aim is not to be perfect. The aim is to work (and it is work, but it's not as hard as I thought) to be good.
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4 comments:
Thank goodness we don't have to be perfect because everyone would be out of luck. Especially me. I think we have certain people placed in our lives for just these moments. They are wonderful reminders. You are one of those amazing people that I look up to and I know there are others who feel the same. So keep up the "good work"! ;)
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I renewed my temple recommend yesterday and as part of it we had this same correction. The very fact that we are commanded to be perfect is evidence we can be someday. So don't feel bad today.
Thanks for this post and for the reminder to not complicate things too much. Like many people, I struggle frequently with thinking I have to be absolutely perfect and get upset when I am obviously not, but you're right in saying we often complicate things needlessly.
I actually don't consider my tendency toward perfectionism (or my resultant frustration) as a production of a need to complicate anything. In this case, I consider my tendency as inevitably frustrating for exactly the reasons Th. points to--we can, as we are taught, eventually be perfect. But it's an eventually thing, not a now thing.
The frustration comes as a result of timing and my own misconceptions more than from any driving need to complicate things.
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