Perfectionism. A personality trait that can be both a blessing and a curse. In some ways, it can be good because it can give you a drive to do things right, and to make sure you are giving your complete effort at all times. But more often than not, the curses of perfectionism outweigh the blessings.

And if you're anything like me, you have memories that resonate this exact idea in your mind.

Five-year-old me goes to kindergarten. I get in trouble for the first time, and my “balloon” that is flying in the air on the bulletin board is “popped,” ending up on the fake grass lining the bottom of the board. I'm bad now.

Seven-year-old me doesn’t get picked to be the “terrific kid” in class the first month of school. I’m such a terrible student.

Nine-year-old me gets her first B on her report card. The world is crumbling down. I’m no longer smart.

I’m 12, and doing a project for school when I misspell a word. But I was writing in pen. So now I’ll have to scratch out the word that I spelled incorrectly, rewrite it, and the whole world will know that I can’t spell.

I’m 14. My body is not the way I want it. It’s not the way that culture tells me it should look. I have to make it perfect. I develop an eating disorder, but at least my quest for perfection is coming to fruition.

I’m 16. I don’t run the race my coach was expecting me to run at our cross country meet. As an athlete, I have failed.

I’m 17. I take the SAT and ACT, and everyone at my high school is comparing scores and GPAs. I don’t have the highest scores, nor do I have the highest GPA. I guess everyone will think I’m dumb.

I’m 18. I show up to class after cross country practice and my hair is a mess. I’m in Nike shorts and a t-shirt. I’m sweaty. I see girls sitting around me with their perfect hair, matching outfits, and they sure aren’t sweaty like I am. If only I could be perfect like they are.

As you can see, nothing good is going to come out of this mindset. None of the outcomes of these issues that I was counting on happening were right. I wasn't a bad person. I wasn't a failure as an athlete. I wasn't dumb. But when you constantly tell yourself something, it starts to become reality.

This desire for perfection has been drilled into my head since I was little. Not as a result of teachers putting pressure on me, nor was it pressures from my family, coaches, or even my friends…none of that. This drive for perfection is a result of the pressure I put on myself. All of these incidents that I faced all boil down to the same general phrase: ”I’m not ________ enough.” I can fill in that blank with several words that have been the root of my struggles. I’m not pretty enough. I’m not smart enough. I’m not good enough. I’m not fast enough. I'm not skinny enough. But here’s the problem. What am I measuring myself against? The idea of being ________ enough in my head is me measuring myself up against an idea of perfection. However, perfection is a moving target, something that we’ll never be able to hit here on Earth.

I’m sure you can relate to this idea, that you have to fit a certain mold in order to fit your idea of perfect. But think about where we draw our ideas of perfect from, specifically with social media in mind. Sure, someone’s life can seem perfect there. But your life is going to seem perfect if you are only posting the highlights, not what happens in between. Yes, celebrities and models on magazines may look flawless, but there’s a thing called PhotoShop. We are drawing our ideas of perfection from things that simply don’t exist.

What if we stopped trying to change ourselves, stopped degrading ourselves, stopped trying to become something that we aren’t…something that can’t even be attained in the first place? What if we stopped caring about what our peers think about us, and cared more about what God thinks about us? What if we stop trying to glorify ourselves and start glorifying Him?

What if we rested in the fact that it is completely okay to not be perfect? No one is perfect, except for Jesus. That is something that can give us so much peace. We don’t have to be perfect, because someone was already perfect for us. Jesus was perfect. He lived His whole life without blemish, without sin. He was the perfect sacrifice for us. We are crazy, broken, imperfect, messed up people. But even with that being said, we are loved. We are so loved that a perfect man would go hang on a cross and die in order to allow us to restore our relationship with the One who created us, to allow us to live in freedom from the pressures that we put on ourselves, and to allow us to live without this constant idea of needing to be perfect looming over us.

Be who you are. God created you in His image. You are His masterpiece. He knows everything about you and still loves you the same. He sees you and doesn’t see your sin or your imperfections or your mess-ups. He looks at you and sees His perfect son. How awesome is that!

So here's a reminder for us to stop focusing on what you AREN’T and start focusing on what you ARE…yes, you’re an imperfect human, but you are also loved more than you could ever imagine.