My Thoughts on Perfection
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| my kitchen this morning. |
I have been wanting to share this thought with you for quite some time. Most of what you see when you come to Oven Love are recipes, photos, ideas.. and a little (teeny, tiny, very small) window into my life. But this blog is just something I do, not who I am.
I want you to know that behind this blog is a real person.
I repeat- I am not perfect. I am a real person.
I am a real person with a perpetually messy house, a huge pile of dishes, and kids who misbehave. I am a real person who doesn’t make gourmet meals every night, relies heavily on bananas to get through the day and makes ugly food sometimes, too. I am a real person who is not perfect and who doesn’t put this blog first. And that’s okay.
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This message is mostly directed at my female readers out there (which is most of you). We are naturally prone to compare ourselves to other women; to wish we were more, or wish we were better versions of ourselves. Beautiful blogs and websites (and Pinterest and Facebook) play right into that- giving us an endless list of things we should do or make or be.
My hope is that you don’t look at this blog and see something unattainable. I don’t want you to think that I am perfect or better in any way- I am just a sinner saved by the grace of God who happens to enjoy cooking and taking pictures and sharing what I learn with you.
We are in this fight together.
I am always fighting a battle against myself. I desire to be a better wife, a better mom, a better cook, a better Christian.. a better everything. If I’m not good at it, I want to be good at it. If I’m already good at it, I want to be better- even though I know that it is Christ who defines me, and not anything else.
I also know that the only way to fight this battle is with the Holy Spirit by my side. God is the one who changes me. He reminds me what is worth striving for.
So while I am in the midst of taking this blog to a new platform and making lots of changes for the better, I just wanted this message to get to you. This blog is something I love and enjoy, but it does not define me. There is so much life to be lived beyond the pages of the Internet!
I want to encourage you today- you are worthy of love, you are special, you are important. God sent His own Son to die just so that he could be with you and show you that love. How amazing! Don’t believe the lie that you need to be a perfect (fill-in-the-blank) for you to be worthy of love.
It’s okay to admit we aren’t perfect.
We are so loved in our imperfection.
“God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8
I love you, Natalie, and I love that I’ve seen (in real life!) how much of a real person you truly are—messy house and all 😉
This is such an excellent post and I’m so glad you shared it with everyone.
I’m excited to see where you take Oven Love in the future, because I know it will be great, real, and made with love 🙂
Great post Natalie! I think we all need to be reminded of this from time to time.
Great post Natalie! I think we all need to be reminded of this from time to time.
Loved these thoughts, Natalie! They are full of truth and I really appreciated reading them.
This is a beautiful post and very much appreciated as we all need the reminder to “wake up” from our Pinterest dreams and just let the dishes be dirty and let our kids watch TV so we can read a book instead; or pin more Pinterests.
You make me so proud to be your mother. Thanks so much for sharing this, Natalie.
Wonderful post! Thanks for sharing and being transparent…as women I know we don’t do this enough. Thank you also for sharing your journey to being healed and healthy. I am also living gluten free, so I know what a challenge this is!