Oh yeah...this one's going to be a keeper. Perfection? What is it? Is it a myth? Is it attainable? Talk about your "yes and no" questions...that one's a bigun. As a wonderful friend of mine would say..."It depends!!!" Darn right it depends. So how about when it comes to the perfect day? What is it? Well it depends. My perfect day is going to be different from your perfect day. Sorry. I hate answers like that too. Don't sweat it. But there are a few general things you have to pay attention to. Check it out.
A Perfect Day Is:
Waking up and stubbing your toe on the bag you wanted to make sure you didn't forget when you ran out of the door in the morning.
Realizing you don't have to pitch in for lunch because you left your wallet at home. (The fact that you don't have money doesn't hurt the cause either, but hey let's not get too carried away counting our blessings!)
Making notes for a lukewarm lesson in FHE to only forget them on the table as you're heading out and pulling off a totally ad lib monologue that was eloquent enough to make everyone at least look like they were enthralled.
Having a song pop up on the radio that you'd forgotten you kind of liked and put you in an AWESOME mood...conveniently right before you're about to go hang out with people.
Okay seriously though. Everyone has days that bring them down. Each and every one of us has things that bother us, or upset us, or give us reason to resent the situation we are in. Days are full of nonsense that makes you grumpy and angry and maybe even grouchy! Perhaps you had awesome plans that fell through because the person you made plans with had other plans come up. Perhaps you had an insanely long list of things that you absolutely HAD to get done today, and by noon you had to throw it out the window because there was no way you could get it all done without having some kind of epic time machine or super speed capability. (Super moms and their magic wands don't count in this conversation.) In all seriousness though, perfection is not a state of being. If you ever hear anyone say that it is, stomp on their foot and then direct them to the following statement:
Perfection is a PROCESS!!! I don't think there's a switch that can be flipped at any point and then BLAM!!! you're perfect. My religion is one of progression. This progression is Eternal. We believe that there is a plan for us, and part of that plan involves an eternal track of progression that our mortal life is only a miniscule portion of. In life we go through a process of refinement where we prepare ourselves for this eternity of progression and then if we become refined enough, we begin to learn what is needed to become just like the God that we worship. Perfection, as a state of being, is not a defined requirement to proceed on this path of progression. There was one that lived through mortality perfectly, and sacrificed himself so that we as the rest of the world, would not have to. For us, then, perfection isn't something we have to achieve. It's a process that we take part in to reach the end goal that we are after, which is to become like our Father in Heaven Himself and to return to live with him; we seek to perfect ourselves.
What does that have to do with having the perfect day? Well if you think about it, if perfection is this process by which we are doing what we can to perfect ourselves, then the perfect day, is a day in which we have done our best to work towards that goal; or to perfect ourselves. So does the perfect day have to be perfect?! Nope. (It just blew your mind how that actually made sense, didn't it?!) A perfect day can be full of shenanigans that you didn't expect; things that weren't what you planned on, or things that you didn't get done. But you do your best, don't let the little things get to you, and you can lay down at the end of the day with a smile on your face because you know that there's tomorrow, and the day after that...and the day after that. Little things will happen to you every day, often that you probably don't even realize, that will shape your day into something good. And if that happens, guess what...YOU'VE HAD A PERFECT DAY! Take a look back on the day. Did your plans fall through? What did you do instead? OH WAIT!? You mean to tell me you did laundry that had been sitting there for longer than it really should have been for any decent self-respecting person?! Coughcoughthat'sahintcoughcough. Did you sit down and finish a book that made you feel epic and awesome and inspired? (Blog in inspiration incoming...Also any Twilight books don't count for that statement.)
It doesn't matter whether or not everything was awesome during your day. There are only a few kinds of things that you can do during a day that you will look back on and go "Today sucked, I really shouldn't have done that." And guess what...there's tomorrow! And also there's repentance. Remember...Christ lived his life perfectly to overcome our imperfection. Because of his sacrifice for us, perfection then comes from perfecting ourselves as best we can and honoring that sacrifice that he made. If we do that, honestly and truthfully, he will make up the difference for what we truly are incapable of accomplishing ourselves.
The truth of the matter is, the simple things that make life wonderful (and perfect) are right there in front of you. You just have to look at them in the right light.
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Food for thought...Christ was also not "perfect" from the beginning. There is a difference between sinless and "perfect." Christ had to go through that process and learn line upon line just as we do. He was not truly "perfect" until He chose to make that sacrifice.
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