To learn, you must love discipline;
it is stupid to hate correction.
Perfection
I have tendencies towards perfectionism. I expect myself to perform at 100% all the time and will beat myself up when I make a mistake. I have started to become more comfortable with my limitations, but I still demand excellence from myself as I judge excellence. That is the problem with perfectionist like me; we create our own standard of criteria for critiquing ourselves. Should anyone else add to these criteria we will either reject their opinion or compile it to an ever-growing list of impossible self-imposed demands.
Perfectionists can actually have a difficult time learning. They become so obsessed with being right, when they are wrong they fall into depression or denial that inhibits the learning process. We learn the most when we apply correction to our mistakes through understanding.
Too often we think of discipline as just punishment, but biblical discipline is more teaching than reprimand. When God disciplines us He shows us something better. The telos of discipline is right understanding and acquired knowledge.
Giving up the need to be right all the time actually opens the door to more understanding. In surrendering my perfectionism, I add to my knowledge.
Omniscient Father, I admit my propensity to think I must always be right thereby making me believe I am right. Help me to appreciate my mistakes, not as failures, but as opportunities to learn. Help me to avoid demanding more of myself than you do. Teach me your ways that I may learn to walk more faithfully with you. – Dan Jones
PROVERBS 12:5
The plans of the godly are just;
the advice of the wicked is treacherous.
Are they really?I’m bothered by this proverb, in particular the first half. Are the plans of the godly just? Is this generally true?
The Bible Belt south defended slavery declaring their cause righteous. I read recently, as part of all the presidential inauguration hoopla, that Lyndon Johnson, signing 1960's civil rights legislation, lamented he was handing the south over to the Republican party. And so it has been, even in this election.
Pollsters confirm that the majority of the deeply committed Christians (the godly?) celebrate the Republican dominance in the south and wish it to be national dominance. Does anyone mind that such dominance grew out of profound racial prejudice!
Few subcultures can claim to be more adamantly patriotic than Evangelicals fighting in the trenches of the culture wars to save our beloved country. It’s been my experience that voices critical of American history and practice are slandered as unpatriotic. We cling tenaciously to our myth of a Christian (godly?) Nation.
It is godly to proclaim “justice for all”. And many Christians have fought valiantly for this godly goal. But as many have resisted and defended the way our country treated Indians, refused women the right to vote, trapped the poor in unsafe and pittance-paying jobs while church-going Robber Barrons grew wealthy, and on and on.
Today “godly” people speak about illegal immigrants in simplistic and cold terms as if these people did not bear the image of God. We rant about shipping jobs overseas without thinking about whether or not “and justice for all” includes the whole world. The “godly” people around me who speak openly about jobs never ask if we should consider the economic impact our economic policies have on the rest of the world, the much poorer rest of the world.
The big justice issue for my “godly” peers seems to be abortion. Fine. But for every 10 words I hear about abortion I hear less than 1 about the even greater number of children between birth and 5 who dies every year of preventable causes.
The plans of the godly are just?
God who loves justice, forgive me when my pursuit of godliness ignores your passion for justice. Forbid that I would settle for simplistic answers to complex issues that would, if practiced, in fact increase injustice. Grant that I would hunger and thirst for righteousness/justice for others as much as I do for myself. - Mike Leamon
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