Jimbo's Jots

We remember the scene from Walt Disney’s Mary Poppins. The scene where Jane and Michaels Banks meet this whirlwind of a nanny. They’re in the nursery to which Mary Poppins pulls out a tape measure to see how the kids “measure up”. They challenge Mary Poppins to measure herself and she quips back, “Practically perfect in every way.”

It has been some time since I heard it. Dr. Paul David Tripp, What Did You Expect? Redeeming the realities of marriage, proposes a concept that I think we forget. Not verbatim, but here is what he says, “We expect perfection from a person that is already flawed and imperfect.” This is a phrase that I have quoted several times working with people in counseling sessions.

At the time we were born, we were told we were perfect. Until we hit that magic age of 2, now we’re being told NO!. Whatever the reason, NO! becomes a part of our vocabulary. Even at 2 years old, we can say Momma, Dada, and NO!

As we get older, the challenges of living practically perfect become harder and harder. Not that life is harder, it is more than the choices that we have to make get harder and harder. As teenagers, we are caught in the complex world of child and adult. Striving for independence while wishing for the protection and security of being a child has sometimes brought us.

We even wrestle with our anxiety and stress from pressure that would place on self. “We have to be perfect! Our grades can’t suffer! We have an image to present!” While internally, we struggle with positive self worth, liking ourselves.

Then, we get older. Possibly go off to college or working in a trade. We start to date and develop relationships. We marry. We carry the weight of what a relationship should look like. We may even place some unwritten and unspoken expectations on ourselves and our partner. When those are violated or broken, our response can lead to feeling broken in the relationship.

Then, Paul steps in with some help to remind us that there can be one aspect of how we view self that can also help us as we look at all relationships.

“Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never ends.” (1 Corinthians 13:4-8, English Standard Version)

As we continue to live in this world of practically imperfect people including ourselves, we all need a little reminder that the love that we can experience and give to ourselves is a love that can be given in perfect ways and that this kind of love can never end.

Be blessed in love! Be a loving blessing to others!!