Day 1954 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.

Romans 3:23 NIV

Ever find yourself staring down one of those days that you just know isn't gonna go your way? Well, I didn't think this was one of them. Then came my workout this afternoon and I was suddenly surprised to see that almost nothing I tried seemed to work. Nothing was feeling like it should. I couldn't feel the muscles I was trying to hit. Just a complete let down. Gotta love those surprise struggles that come out of nowhere.

Did get something amazing out of it though: this verse idea. I spent the entire workout just getting more and more frustrated because nothing was going right. It just kept getting worse and worse until I was so frustrated that the old idea of quitting started making more sense. Didn't give in to it, but it made me realize just how easy it is to get upset and quit trying.

We've all been there countless times in life. Things are harder than we want them to. Nothing is going our way. Everything just feels off and aggravating. And if we're not careful, our desire for everything to be easy and feel just right will make us quit when they inevitably don't work out like that. Perfection sounds great, but it also leads us straight to being let down and disappointed more times than not.

One of the hardest truths that we have to come to terms with is that we're not perfect and life isn't either. Sorry to burst your bubble! The big thing is that we can't be hard on ourselves when we mess up or have those rough days. Sometimes things just don't work out. Sometimes we mess up. Sometimes we push so hard to make things go our way that we just end up smashing them to pieces and getting nowhere in the process.

We have to understand that God doesn't expect perfection, so neither should we. He understands that we're gonna get things wrong, so we don't need to act like it's the end of the world when we do. Mistakes happen, our imperfections trip us up, and we have things that we struggle with. Cut yourself some slack. You're okay!

I'm obviously not saying that we should accept and embrace our mistakes and problems. That's definitely not that case. We should all want to grow and improve. We should all work to get stronger and better ourselves. But we can't get so focused on wanting to be perfect that we freak out when we aren't. We can't get to the point where little mistakes blow up into massive issues that are far bigger than they ever need to be.

Just don't always be so hard on yourself. We all do it, and we probably always will. We want to be better and that's a very good thing. But getting angry and disappointed when we mess up will only make it easier to give up. And that will never help us at all. Be patient. Don't lose your mind. Don't think that you have to be perfect all the time. And don't expect that you'll never mess anything up. It happens, but don't let it get the best of you. Pick yourself up and try again. Sometimes that's the best we can do!