It’s a Service Center Not a Showroom

 Last night I was talking to my baby— my 6-year-old baby— and I was noticing how much he’s grown. And I told him, “Aw, you look SO grown up! You’re not my baby, you’re a little boy! You’re so handsome!”

To which he matter-of-factly replied, “Yeah, but I still pick my nose.” 😂

Well, way to remind me he’s not THAT grown up yet... 

It’s good to acknowledge how far we’ve come! But it’s also good to recognize the things we need to work on.

I’m really good at recognizing what I need to work on. 

In fact, one small self doubt often spirals into many and soon I’m feeling like a failure at EVERYTHING. I think Satan grabs at the smallest opportunities to dig at us, like when a kid fiddles with a tiny tear in their pants and it soon turns into a giant gaping hole and you have to throw those pants away (true story). He just finds the weakest link, the tiniest flaw, and then eats at you and eats at you until that hole gets bigger and bigger and you feel like the worst person ever.

I have to remind myself I AM NOT PERFECT and that’s okay! We are here to grow, we are here to learn, and we are here to make the choice for ourselves- when we’re discouraged, when we fall short, when we make mistakes, do we turn to Christ? Who suffered and atoned for us for that VERY purpose? Or do we turn to Satan, who wants us to feel self-pity, shame, and hopelessness?

“The Church is not an automobile showroom—a place to put ourselves on display so that others can admire our spirituality, capacity, or prosperity. It is more like a service center, where vehicles in need of repair come for maintenance and rehabilitation.

“And are we not, all of us, in need of repair, maintenance, and rehabilitation? We come to church not to hide our problems but to heal them.” Uchtdorf 

I don’t know about you, but once I can let go of trying to be PERFECT and EVERYTHING for EVERYONE, and humbly realize God’s gift of grace is ENABLING POWER, and that through Him we will EVENTUALLY be made perfect— a word whose origin means “finished” or “complete”— I feel a weight lifted. 

This is truth.

“As many of them as are brought to the knowledge of the truth...they have been made free.” Hel. 15:7-8