YOU DHTBPTBB (Free the ducks!)

Over at Nesting Place, The Nester decorates with the mantra "It doesn't have to be perfect to be beautiful". She recommends mistreatment of windows and other such wonders for feathering the nest.



Can I let you in on a little secret?



It's not just our windows. Sometimes we need to tell our hearts- you, made just as you are, don't have to be/look/act perfect to be beautiful. Maybe this is not a struggle for you- It is for me. I know it's a problem especially when it spills over to my children and my spouse. I am so intent on all the ducks in a row and frustrated with my inability to keep my feathered friends on their best behaviour that I decide I'll take over everyone else's ducks, too. It needles like nagging in sharp tones, it echoes in an exasperated sigh, it resonates in my tightly pursed lips (hello wrinkles!). None of that horrible pursuit of perfection is beautiful. It's ugly- from the inside out.



You are beautiful. You are. BELIEVE IT! The Bible says you are "fearfully and wonderfully made." God made you beautiful. When He sees you He catches His breath, His head turns, His eyes sparkle - you are his child. You know that feeling you get watching your baby do something? That's how God feels about us! We are beautiful. This beauty doesn't come from us- we don't create it. (Thank goodness!)It is from the Holy Spirit of the Living God. There is no true beauty without it. Keats said "Beauty is truth,truth beauty" .The Bible says that "Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life". Do you know the Truth? Tell yourself the truth- because "the truth will set you free". Free from the trap of perfection. Free from delivering your children to that same prison. When we strive for perfection as our goal, we push God out. Seeking to be perfect on our own, we alienate ourselves from the very source of peaceful perfection. God loved you so much that he sent his one and only Son to die for you. (John 3:16) All so your ducks don't have to be in a row. They can just be....well, ducks!



At the park, the ducks get to the water in a little wad of waddling. Everyone gets there-together. (Without my help!) No one is examining their feathers, insecure about them not being as fine as someone else's. Sometimes there's a nudge here or a quack there as a duckling gets too far away, but the point is not perfection- it's getting there together, as ducks. And that is a thing of beauty.