“Though he fall, he shall not be cast headlong, for the LORD upholds his hand.” – Psalm 37:24
Mistakes. Oh, how we hate to get caught making mistakes! The mere thought of it used to paralyze me. (Yes, I was that kid standing in the candy aisle for hours, terrified of making the wrong choice!)
Of course, as we grow older the cold, hard truth begins to settle in: mistakes are inevitable. No matter how hard we strive for perfection, we will slip up from time to time.
The reality of this has greatly humbled me of late. I won’t always teach perfect lessons, preach perfect sermons, or handle every situation at home the way Mr. Cleaver would have approved of.
And that’s okay.
To relieve stress, my wife and I have dove into the trendy world of adult coloring. As I work on my little masterpieces, the stress of life melts away as I reflect on life. Sometimes I color outside the lines, or accidentally select the wrong color. But the picture isn’t ruined. In fact, sometimes I find that the “mistakes” are actually quite beautiful, and they become my favorite part of the entire work!
Here is my latest creation, done with the Colorfy App:
What has jumping on board with this crazy trend taught me?
Allow yourself to make mistakes – to experiment with new ideas and new colors.
Make peace with the fact that not every decision will be perfect – and learn to see the beautiful lessons wrapped in every fumble.
And remember that God is absolutely in the business of taking our spilled milk and using it to creating glorious tales of healing and redemption.
Go ahead…dare to color outside the lines.
The Artistic Christian 
I have also had to realize that I cannot be perfect. To release yourself from striving for perfection is very freeing. How peaceful it is to just place yourself and your efforts into God’s hands and let Him create the masterpiece that is life.
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Amen to that Teresa; good word. If I had known how freeing and wonderful it would feel to let go of striving for perfection and control, I would have done it much sooner. It felt like the weight of the world was lifted off of me when I finally let go. Certainly made me wonder why I had struggled to hold onto it for so long (of course I understand the spiritual aspects of it now). I praise God for setting me free.
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Absolutely! It’s wonderful to just sit back and enjoy what God has planned for us!
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This is an amazing piece, thank you! I’m writing under a new blog now, this is Melissa from workforthecausenottheapplause.
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Thanks Melissa – I’ll have to pop over and check out the new blog!
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Thank you for sharing this tremendously valuable word and lesson. So many are bound by the pursuit of perfection – a goal which will always elude us and which God doesn’t want us pursuing anyway. Thank you, Lord, for setting us free. Enjoyed the artwork!
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I couldn’t agree more – fighting for perfection isn’t just impossible… it’s bondage. Thanks for adding your thoughts!
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This was so simple and beautiful. I have a lot of trouble accepting my failure. It is worse yet if someone sees me fail, and constructive criticism is my worst enemy. I am discovering lately just how prideful this is. If I have an identity swallowed up in God’s, drawing outside of the lines is a beautiful picture of how life looks. Without Him, it is a perfectionist disaster.
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I couldn’t agree more…may we all let our identity become swallowed up in His!
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I really appreciate this post. I am slowing growing up and finding, just as you said, that mistakes are inevitable. I think I am finally seeing beyond the child-like mentality that “everything will work out.” BUT, while we know everything may not work out, we can rest in knowing that if we do accidentally color outside the lines, we still have a good God who can make our accident a masterpiece. Thanks for sharing!
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I couldn’t have said it better…thanks!
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Reblogged this on ChristianBlessings and commented:
It is so easy to point out other’s mistakes. So difficutl to apologise for our mistakes. May the Lord help us learn from our mistakes.
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