Perfection

Hello. My name is Sean and I am a perfectionist. I have been this way my whole life and I cannot see myself ever changing. I absolutely hate failure, actually I loath it all the way down to the depths of hell. I set high standards for myself and if I do not achieve them, there is usually hell to pay.

How many of you are like me? You strive and seek perfection and beat yourself up when you do not achieve it? I bet most of you are like this in one way or another.

I have done a lot of thinking on being perfect this week. Why do we strive for it? Why do we hate ourselves if we do not achieve it? Why is it so important for us to be perfect? What would the world be like if we were all perfect? Well, I have come up with some answers to this and I would like others input.

Why do we strive for perfect? In my opinion, this is the easiest one to answer. We are commanded by God and Christ to be perfect even as they are perfect. Essentially this becomes our greatest life mission--to become perfect. This is because Christ was able to achieve perfection and so should we. The problem is that we can never become like Christ in this life. We can never be perfect.

Why do we hate ourselves if we do not achieve perfection? The answer goes along with the first question's answer. We are commanded to become perfect. The reason why we hate ourselves is because we think that we can or know that we can be perfect in some areas of our lives and when we do not achieve that perfection, we hate ourselves. We also can hate ourselves for not reaching perfection in areas that we are not even close to being perfect. We, however, need to realized that we are not like God and Christ. Christ sacrificed Himself so that we could become perfect through Him. We cannot be perfect on our own. We are supposed to try our very best to be perfect. If we do not achieve it, it is fine because Christ has made up for the rest. He only requires you to try your best and if you do that, you have not failed in His eyes--you may feel like you have failed in your eyes though. Do not hate yourself because you think you have failed. Remember that Christ will make up for your lack.

Why is it so important for us to be perfect? This answer again comes from the first question. We are commanded to become perfect like God and Christ. We are supposed to be perfect so that we can become Gods. Again, we have to realize that this is not going to happen in this lifetime and that we need Christ's help to achieve perfection and Godhood.

What would this world be like if we were all perfect? In my opinion, if we were all perfect, the world would be boring. There would be no competition because everybody could do everything perfectly and there would be no reason to compete with each other to see who is better. There would be no challenge because again everyone could do everything perfectly. We would not be unique anymore--our imperfections are what make us who we are. We would all be the same or very similar--that seems really boring to me. I personally like meeting new people because they are new and different, not the same. I think that there would also be only happiness and good things--all of the trials and the heartache would be gone. This is because we would be able to handle everything perfectly without any problem.

All of my imperfections make me who I am. I know that I do not follow all of the commandments perfectly because if I did, I would be God or Christ. I know that have lied, hurt others, had sex, looked at pornography, masturbated, cheated on tests/homework, stolen some things from stores, not paid a full tithe, and many other things. These imperfections, however, made me the person that I am--they all have taught me lessons. They have given me unique experiences that has shaped me into the person I am today. I do not claim to be perfect and I know that I continue to make mistakes and with those mistakes comes the process of repentance and starting anew. I just hope that people can forgive me of my imperfections and see that I am trying my best to be the best person that I can be. If any of my imperfections and actions have hurt any of you, I am truly sorry.