Biblical Truths to Combat Crippling Perfectionism
Artist and author Alice Briggs says perfectionism and anxiety really started to mess with her mental health, causing her to stress out while doing art, which was supposed to have the opposite effect of relaxing her. It wasn’t until she realized how God saw her that she could put the perfectionist mentality to rest.
“Everyone’s seen a little baby trying to walk, and they are the worst walkers ever,” Briggs says. “They are stumbling, they fall down all the time. They’re teetering and tottering. They have to hold onto stuff. They are horrible walkers. If you’re looking at the quality of walking, they are bad. That is not what anyone around them sees.
“Mom is not counting how many times the kid fell down. Mom is counting the one step that whole day, that whole week or month, and she’s calling everybody [to celebrate],” Briggs says. “That’s exactly how God sees us. He is counting the times that we get back up. We’re the ones that expect us not to fail. He knows that we’re human.”
Another great practice to help us get our perspective aligned with God’s purposes is to keep a gratitude journal so we don’t forget how much God loves us, says artist and podcast host Matt Tommey.
“My journaling over the years has turned into gratitude and celebrations of wins in my life,” Tommey says. “‘Thank You, God, that this happened. Thank You that I was able to get through it’. … The life that we’re living right now is the fruit of the things that we have believed in our life.”
For more encouragement on thinking positive thoughts about hope for our futures, click here for the entire episode.
