{"id":21683,"date":"2022-09-29T09:49:26","date_gmt":"2022-09-29T13:49:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=21683"},"modified":"2022-09-29T09:56:43","modified_gmt":"2022-09-29T13:56:43","slug":"accepting-our-imperfections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=21683","title":{"rendered":"Accepting Our Imperfections"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/aRb9C4v8XtA\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Richard shares\nhow the teachings of Th\u00e9r\u00e8se of Lisieux have supported his own spiritual\njourney:&nbsp; <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>French Catholicism in Th\u00e9r\u00e8se\u2019s time emphasized an ideal of human perfection, but <strong>Th\u00e9r\u00e8se humbly trusted her own experience and taught the spirituality of imperfection instead<\/strong>. Th\u00e9r\u00e8se is one of my favorite saints, perhaps because\u202f<strong>I\u2019m an Enneagram Type One. The trap for the One is self-created perfectionism, which makes us dissatisfied and disappointed by nearly everything, starting with ourselves.&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Th\u00e9r\u00e8se has helped me to embrace imperfection\u2014my own and others. When her sister C\u00e9line was upset with her own faults, Th\u00e9r\u00e8se instructed, \u201cIf you want to bear in peace the trial of not pleasing yourself, you will give [the Virgin Mary] a sweet home.\u201d [1] <strong>If we pay attention even for an hour, we observe how hard it is to be \u201cdispleasing\u201d to ourselves<\/strong>! Often, this is the emotional snag that sends us into terribly bad moods without even realizing the origins of these moods. To resolve this problem, <strong>Th\u00e9r\u00e8se teaches us to let go of the very need to \u201cthink well of yourself\u201d to begin with! That\u2019s our ego talking, not God.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Worthiness is not the issue; the issue is trust and surrender. <\/strong>As Th\u00e9r\u00e8se understood, \u201c<strong>Jesus does not demand great actions from us but simply <\/strong><em><strong>surrender <\/strong><\/em><strong>and <\/strong><em><strong>gratitude.<\/strong><\/em><strong>\u201d<\/strong> [2] Let\u2019s resolve this once and for all:&nbsp;<em><strong>You\u2019re not worthy!<\/strong><\/em><strong>&nbsp;None of us are. Don\u2019t even go down that worthiness road. It\u2019s a game of denial and pretend. We\u2019re all saved by grace. We\u2019re all being loved in spite of ourselves.&nbsp;That\u2019s why I can also say, <\/strong><em><strong>\u201cYou\u2019re all worthy!&#8221;&nbsp;<\/strong><\/em><strong>But your worthiness has nothing to do with you, and everything to do with the goodness of God.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Bren\u00e9 Brown, a contemporary\nteacher who extols the gifts of imperfection, writes: <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It is in the <strong>process of embracing our imperfections that we find our truest gifts: courage, compassion, and connection. . .<\/strong> .<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>When we can let go of what other people think and own our story, we gain access to our worthiness<\/strong>\u2014the feeling that we are enough just as we are and that we are worthy of love and belonging. When we spend a lifetime trying to distance ourselves from the parts of our lives that don\u2019t fit with who we think we\u2019re supposed to be, we stand outside of our story and hustle for our worthiness by constantly performing, perfecting, pleasing, and proving. . . .<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>There is a line from Leonard Cohen\u2019s song \u201cAnthem\u201d that serves as a reminder to me when . . . I\u2019m trying to control everything and make it perfect. The line is, \u201cThere is a crack in everything. That\u2019s how the light gets in.\u201d [3] . . .<\/strong> This line helps me remember the beauty of the cracks (and the messy house and the imperfect manuscript and the too-tight jeans). It reminds me that our imperfections are not inadequacies; they are reminders that we\u2019re all in this together. Imperfectly, but together. [4]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong> Sarah Young&#8230;..<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You can walk with Me as if you and I are the only one&#8217;s in the universe. Walk with Me in intimate love steps, knowing you are wonderfully and fearfully made to love Me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Psalm 34:4-6  <br>I sought the Lord, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears. 5 They looked unto him, and were lightened: and their faces were not ashamed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Peter 1:16-17  <br>since it is written,<strong>&nbsp;\u201cYou shall be holy, for I am holy<\/strong>.\u201d 17 And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one\u2019s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>JOHN 17:3  <br>Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Psalm 139:14  <br><strong>I am fearfully and wonderfully made&nbsp;<\/strong> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Richard shares how the teachings of Th\u00e9r\u00e8se of Lisieux have supported his own spiritual journey:&nbsp; French Catholicism in Th\u00e9r\u00e8se\u2019s time emphasized an ideal of human perfection, but Th\u00e9r\u00e8se humbly trusted her own experience and taught the spirituality of imperfection instead. Th\u00e9r\u00e8se is one of my favorite saints, perhaps because\u202fI\u2019m an Enneagram Type One. The trap [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21683"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21683"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21683\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21687,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21683\/revisions\/21687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}