His Grace is Enough…

Today I made a totally stupid mistake. I was meeting some new people and someone asked me what my major is. What did I say? Communication. Is that my major? No….it’s my minor. My major is General Studies. You see, my major was communication until I changed it to be a stay-at-home mom. I switched to general studies so I could finish all online and be home with my daughter, but thankfully I was able to keep all of my communication work by making it my minor. So today when someone asked me my major my response of “communication” wasn’t a blatant lie, it was an honest mistake. I attempted to make amends to my mistake by telling them I’m graduating with general studies, but I still felt like a total idiot.  I mean, who forgets what their major is? Duh!

It’s easy for me to get down on myself when I mess up, whether that mistake is telling someone the wrong degree or losing my temper or being rude to my husband or, or, or…. Sometimes my perfectionist nature gets the best of me and I expect perfection out of myself. Satan starts whispering lies to me like, “See you lied, you’re a terrible, hypocritical Christian.” Or “You’ll never be good enough” or “Others don’t make these mistakes”. Satan wants Christians to feel guilty and condemned….because he knows that Christians are actually made innocent by the blood of Jesus and as Romans 8:1 says, there is no condemnation for those that are in Christ Jesus. If you are a Christian, as imperfect as we all are, you are made clean by Jesus and God doesn’t see your sin any longer. You and I are clothed in Christ’s righteousness.

The simple truth is this: no one is perfect, and no one ever will be perfect. There is no such thing as a perfect Christian or a Christian who does not sin (except of course for Jesus). I shouldn’t be surprised when I mess up and sin…both intentionally and unintentionally. Similarly, I shouldn’t be surprised when others sin.  It would be prideful and foolish for me to expect perfection from myself or others. Sometimes people put other “stronger” Christians on a pedestal and think they don’t sin or mess up like everyone else, but that is foolish too. Everybody is fallible. Everybody messes up. We’re all imperfectly following Jesus together.

So today if you’ve messed up like me, give yourself the same grace that Jesus extends to you. Repent of your mistakes and sin, and pursue holiness. Don’t wallow in your shortcomings…that’s what Satan wants you to do. Christ wants you to walk in His freedom, and that includes freedom from guilt and shame. If someone you know has sinned or made a mistake towards you or someone you know, extend His grace and forgiveness to them. Remember that Christ’s sacrifice on the cross was enough to defeat all our sin.  His grace is enough.