My point is that we must cherish and celebrate perfection whenever and wherever we find it! But it usually doesn't happen in big ways or even very often in the lives of human beings. It happens in moments, and those moments can become etched in our memories forever.Way too often we (all mortal beings who are certainly less than perfect...) become so focused on what we don't have, haven't yet achieved, and aren't able to do because of sometimes temporary limitations... that we stop seeing "the wonder" which is all around us... We ignore "everyday miracles" and "minor glories"... always wanting the major stuff to happen...
The problem is that those moments usually come unexpectedly, so we need to be open to recognizing them when they do so fleetingly occur. Oftentimes we are so focused on the tasks at hand, or the desire to force perfection in some other place or time in our lives, that we miss those perfect moments entirely. As a result, our lives can feel like an exercise in frustration, for as surely as we live we will have many more imperfect moments, days, weeks, months and years -- actually a lifetime.
But God does bring us moments. And those moments add up to create a rich and wonderful life. I think that at the end of my life, I'd rather have an imperfect life filled with some perfect moments that I loved and appreciated than a life filled with my own attempts at order and control that led me to miss the gifts that God was setting right before my eyes -- in his time, not mine.
In the last year I have been trying to concentrate on what IS, instead of what isn't. Two things have been apparent to me... first: is that the adversary has done his best to try and confuse and discourage me from this goal by putting a lot of major problems in my way, and trying to force me to look at what isn't happening the way I want... and second: that there are tremendous blessings to witness every single day, just waiting for anyone that focuses on what IS the way "it" is. "It" is the relative variable... "IT" is not as important as recognition of whatever "it" is that is good...
The 13th Article of Faith says:
We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men; indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul—We believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured many things, and hope to be able to endure all things. If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things. [italics added]The one thing I disagree with in the article is that these moments of perfection happen rarely... I personally believe that once we train ourselves to recognize and accept all the good that there is in our lives that we will see daily many moments of near perfection if not complete perfection. As pointed out in the article these moments do not have to last to be perfect... And they do not necessarily have to be maintained by us... only acknowledged... plus I think it helps if they are marked (noted) in a journal... At least that is becoming true in my life... Each day lately I am finding more and more moments to be happy about... My life did not change, in fact in some ways life has gotten harder... but the way I choose to view my life... complete with moments of perfection, joy, happines, faith, and wonder (just to name a few) is changing... It's more of that "PollyAnna in practice" attitude...
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