My life is perfect, and I bet yours is, too!

Usually when we use the term "perfect" we are referring to one definition of the word: flawless. But last summer while working on "Ladies of Legacy," I learned another definition. 

Hebrews 5:7-9 says, "During the days of Jesus' life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him..."

The word perfect used this way means complete. A pastor/missionary friend of mine said it was much like shooting an arrow and hitting the bullseye. Through obedience Jesus hit the mark, so to say, and finished all He was given to do.

Google defines perfect this way: "having all the required or desirable elements, qualities or characteristics; as good as it is possible to be."

God gives us all the needed elements to make our lives work, and to do what He plans for us to do.

In recent years I have realized how perfectly my husband and I are matched for each other. I tend to bite off more than I can chew. He tends to shy away from projects that are too big. He is able to put up with me when I'm frazzled and stressed out and I am able to motivate and encourage him when he's overwhelmed by a task.

I'm the clock-watching parent who gets the kids to bed on time; he's the parent who keeps the kids up way too late to see the beauty of a full moon. Both have their benefit. Together it gives the kids structure and spontaneity if we choose to look at it that way.

Balance means sometimes my husband needs to reign in the spontaneity, and at other times I need to ignore the clock. Balance has me listening to my husband's shaking head as I'm rattling off the twenty projects we can do, and has him breaking out of his comfort zone to attempt a few of his wife's crazy projects. We can choose to be annoyed and frustrated, thinking we are too different for a marriage to work. OR we can choose to see the value in the diversity of our thinking and help each other through our weaknesses.

God not only provides companionship in the form of a spouse, or good friends or families. He provides  for our daily needs, too. 

When my youngest child started kindergarten I worried (unfortunately) and prayed (fortunately) about the expense of four children in private school. God provided the perfect job for me at just the right time, a job I didn't look for, or apply for, but attained with one phone call. It is not a "perfect" (as in flawless) job. But it is perfect for me. I have the right skill set for the job, the hours fit nicely into our life, and God has mercifully shown me the blessing it is, making it easy to go to work. 

We discovered a few years ago that my son needed a little more help in school. Through testing and praying and a local dyslexia center we found a tutor who not only gets along fantastically with my son, but who knows several members of my extended family. She is the perfect tutor for my son. She hits the mark and provides just what is needed, and because God had already provided a job for me, the cost wasn't an overwhelming burden.

God not only provides who we need in our life and what we need in our life;  He supplies all we need for a rich spiritual life, too. 

2 Peter 1:3 tells us: "His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life..."

Jesus' death means our forgiveness. God gives us His Word, a church, Christian friends to keep us on the right path. He provides comfort when comfort is needed and strength when strength is needed and courage when courage is needed.

Typically when our life seems incomplete it's because our eyes aren't open to all God's doing and all He's done. In my family we pray daily for contentment, and God is so gracious to give it...so much so that as I was weeding the other day I pulled out some creeping charlie and called my girls over to look at the beauty of the tiny blue flowers. God has even made the weeds smothering my plants beautiful in my sight. 

 

Open our eyes, Lord, to see how perfectly You are working in our lives, to see how flawlessly You provide and how faithfully you forgive when our lives miss the mark.

 

 

Amber SComment