This one's for all my perfectionists. I know how you feel. I know how you tirelessly work to patch up every tiny hole and crack and chink in your armor. I know how you fake an effortless smile as you make juggling your never-ending to-do list look easy.

I know how you live in constant fear that someone will figure out your life isn't the fun, carefree picnic that your Instagram feed makes it look like. I know how you fall apart when the tiniest thing doesn't work out or go your way, like in a Jenga game when just one wrong move causes the entire game to fall apart and end. This is for you. I know how you feel because I am you.

I really wish I could say that I have come to terms with my inevitable imperfection and that this article is an easy five step, end all method to conquering the need to have it all together, but the reality is that this is something I struggle with every. single. day.

I know how you worry. In high school, I was the girl who did it all. Student body president, straight-As, and member of almost every sports team. I let this become my identity, as I'm sure many of you have as well. I went through every day terrified of even the tiniest slip-up because mistakes weren't included in the "girl who has their life together" image that I had in my head.

I knew that no one is entirely perfect, but I was determined to get as close as possible. What I find the most bizarre about this mindset is the fact that we know that we know we know we are not immune to immune to messing up, yet we still look at every other person we see and think "wow now THEY have their life together".

But the reality is that not a single one of us has it together. You are human, and the fact is that you are essentially set up for failure. Romans 3:23 infamously tells us that "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God". Everyone messes up. Everyone fails miserably. Everyone gets knocked off their feet sometimes. Everyone has days where they don't want to get out of bed.

But the story doesn't end there. Yes, you don't actually have it together. But this is because you aren't supposed to. God's intentions were never for you to be able to handle it on our own. There is evidence of this on practically every page of the Bible, but personally one of my favorite examples is in 2 Corinthians 4:9 when God says, "My power is made perfect in weakness".

It is solely because of your weakness that God is able to do great things. See, without all of your imperfect and messy moments that you wish more than anything that you could change, you wouldn't have a totally perfect God moving and working what you see as a mistake into something pure and beautiful.

A passage of the bible that I have come to love is in Luke 10. Here Jesus visits two sisters, Mary and Martha. Martha spends every second Jesus is there running around the house making sure every little detail is right and everything is perfect. But the other sister, Mary, simply sits at Jesus' feet hanging on to every word he says. When Martha asks Jesus why He isn't upset at Mary for sitting idle, He says this:

"You are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her." (Luke 10:41-42, NIV)

In this story, I like to think I'm Mary and sitting simply in awe of the feet of Jesus, but if I'm honest I know that most of the time I'm Martha, constantly going from one thing to another trying to prove to The Lord that I can handle it all. But God doesn't want us to become so consumed with doing it all exactly right because that's His job. All we're supposed to do is dwell in His presence.

I'm not saying that you should drop every responsibility and completely give up. What you and I and so many others need to let go of is this false expectation that we can reach a level of perfection and maximum productivity on our own. And what's up with this need in society to have a life free from mistakes and messes anyways?

Because life is messy. Life is awkward conversations and failed tests and spilled coffee and crying on your bedroom floor. Life is dirty dishes and piles of laundry because you spent all night on the phone with someone who needed a friend.

So when these inevitable cases of life hit, decide in that moment if you want to be Martha, and immediately become a bundle of stress and fear, or if you want to be Mary, and instead take a deep breath and let God make something out of it.