Mother's Column – How to live in a a society that only accepts excellent people

My daughter has noticed that there are older children who colour better than she does. They fill in all the spaces in the picture and don't go outside the outlines. And yes, that's a big deal when you're four!

So now she is trying her best to get the same results. She wants to be as good at colouring as her oldest friends.

Concerning Kids – Why should children always be perfect?

03-02-2024

As I encouraged her, I noticed that now she sometimes refuses to colour and enjoy the simple activities we usually do in the morning because she doesn't think she's good enough.

"I don't want to fail, so I don't even try!" Of course, we told her that those who don't fail don't learn and can't progress, but I realized how much the burden of perfectionism can affect anyone. Even children.

Fallible

We live in a society that makes us believe that we must excel and that we can achieve perfection through our own efforts.

In addition, we are crushed by the weight of pride that suggests that if we cannot excel, we should never show our weaknesses and failures.

So I went back to her and we talked about the real issue. It is not whether we can paint or not, it is the reality that we are not perfect beings. We are fallible and we are sinners.

Mother's column – Why I, as a traditional mother, am not a tradwife

04-05-2024

Yet we do well to seek perfection. Perfection exists, but not within us. There was only one Man who lived a perfect life, and that was Christ Jesus. When we rest in Him, we can accept our weaknesses and failures and know that we are already forgiven for them. That we are already considered perfect in Him.

I shared these things with my daughter as I also spoke to myself, remembering God's promises not to be overwhelmed by the tendency toward perfectionism that pollutes our lives.