It's all in the title...

My favorite quote is by Michael J. Fox. In fact, it's at the top of my blog here and in the signature of my emails.

I am careful not to confuse excellence with perfection. Excellence, I can reach for; perfection is God's business. ~Michael J. Fox

This strikes me particularly hard because I am a self-proclaimed perfectionist with so many things. Clearly not with having a clean, spotless house, but perfectionist none the less!

I often have to read this quote because it reminds me that nobody is perfect. Not the girl with the hair that is ALWAYS smooth, silky and shiny without a stray that I see every weekend at church. Not the girl with the perfect body (in my eyes). Not the friend with the coolest, hippest fashion-sense that doesn't have a pile of clothes in her closet or on the chair in her room with clothes she has tried on, didn't like how it looked on her and was too late to hang back up because it she can picture her outfit in her head before she goes to bed the night before. Not even the girl who seems to be the perfect friend. Or the girl who throws the best, most creative parties. No one is perfect....except Jesus, and well let's face it, none of us will be like him!

So, it brings me back to the quote....every time.

Let's break it down...
"I am careful not to confuse excellence with perfection." What is perfection if I can't ever achieve it? It's excellence. That's what it is.
Excellence: An excellent or valuable quality; that by which any one excels or is eminent; a virtue.
I can excel at things but I can't be perfect at them and when I realize that I am not shooting for perfect, I excel. See the difference?

Excellence, I can reach for; perfection is God's business. If I know that God will be the perfection in my life, it's all good! He created me exactly how HE wanted me to be. If God's business, his plan is perfect, then I must be perfect, right? Hard to believe! When that worry, that stress, that anxiety of knowing that I am already perfect is off my plate...I can be EXCELLENT because I know I am PERFECT already.

I needed to read this as much as I needed to write this today...my next post will be about my new found fun in the kitchen :)