It'll Do: Learning To Say No To Perfect

You know, sooner or later a person is bound to learn that everything can't be perfect.  This is an especially painful lesson for the perfectionist.  A famous line from my dad to me over the years has been, "Aim for progress, Melissa, not perfection."


My dad is absolutely right.  Here at Dwell Inspired, I aim for the same thing.  I am not after a picture-perfect, magazine-ready room.  We all know no one lives like that.  I am after improvement that inspires.  

Part of improving a space is learning about the people who inhabit that space. Learning their rhythms and movement in order to create a space that facilitates their lifestyle.  It also means learning their taste and budget.  And sometimes it means bringing their taste down to meet their budget.  There are times in life when you just have to say "it'll do" and move on. Your marriage and your wallet may be depending on it. 

Take my home office that I am working on right now.  There have been vast improvements made so far.  My family is already enjoying our new space and we don't even have a couch to sit on!  When it comes to taste and budget, I could have had custom drapes made, or even bought fancier, longer drapes online that would have pooled elegantly on the floor the way they do in the magazines. Honestly, I prefer that look.  

But you know what?  The cheaper shorter drapes from Target will do.  It'll do to have 84" drapes instead of the 96" drapes that I could have hung higher and would have pooled at the bottom.  It'll do.  Because when I consider my season of life (with small children running around anyhow) and my budget the longer drapes simply don't work for me.  

This could wreck a person.  As ridiculous as that sounds, we all know it's true. We get our hearts set on some thing and we will stop at nothing until our desire is satisfied and we have that thing.  The only problem is the satisfaction fades and we need a new thing.  What is a girl to do?  

Well, for starters we can back this train up and start at the beginning. 

Do you know that your value is not found in what you see, what you produce, what you own, how much money you make, your marital status, or the behavior of your children? Your worth is found in the One who created you.  When you know the source of your true worth, you can stop spinning to find it in the things of this earth. You can stop spending what you don't have to prove to people you don't know that you are somebody. 

Why is a Van Gogh painting so valuable? Because of the artist who painted it. So it is with you.  You are inherently valuable because you were designed and created by God. May that truth move you to live within your means and say "it'll do" to 84-inch curtains and whatever else may be outside of your budget--even if it is less than perfect.  You and your family are worth it.

"For You formed my inward parts; You knitted me together in my mother's womb.  I praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.  Wonderful are Your works; my soul knows it very well.  My frame was not hidden from You when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth."  Psalm 139:13-15