Not Perfection, but Progess

I had originally had this wonderful vision of blogging everyday this summer. Fail. A lady whom I greatly respect often told me that living for the Lord is, “not perfection, but progress.” This applies to so many areas of life outside of walking with the Lord (and it obviously applies to my goal of daily blogging).  For some reason, I am very patient people around me (with the exception of my family… Sorry Mom.), but highly impatient with myself. For example, I never really liked coloring as kid. Taking the time to slowly color perfectly inside the lines to create a picture was just boring for me and not worth the time and effort. In class, I would usually just scribble when we had to color an assignment. Once in 2^nd or 3^rd grade I actually took the time to really color a picture and my mom was so proud she framed it (at the time she thought it might be the only decent piece of “artwork” I would ever do).  My problem is that I expect perfection in myself right away. If I try to learn something and it does not come easily for me, I often just give up. Sometimes when I am reading a book I will skip to the end just to see what happens and then go back and read the rest. I do not know how to “enjoy the journey” in doing things. I have yet to learn how to appreciate progress and I think this is what God wants to begin teaching me during this summer. He wants me to learn how to appreciate the progress of things in my life. I have been reading a book a close friend recommended to me by Elisabeth Elliot called Passion and Purity. In it Elliot talks a lot about dealing with uncertainty before marrying the man who would become her husband. She gives an example of a conversation she had with the Lord at one point, “When will we find it? we ask. Trust Me. How will we find it? we ask. Trust Me.”  I struggle all the time with trusting God to handle situations in my life: school, work, future, etc… Often, I want so desperately to know the ”end of the story“ in different areas of my life and God’s answer is Trust Me. Learn to appreciate the progress.