Tag Archives: Correction

8 Confessions of a Type A Perfectionist

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For a perfectionist, particularly a type A perfectionist, the word excellence has a nice ring to it—a seductive ring.

You say I should pursue excellence? Sure! I’d be glad to. In fact, I’ll do more. I’ll insist on excellence—at every level, in every realm.

Yes, for me, excellence easily becomes a trap. What should be a quest to bring glory to the Lord by striving for excellence turns into a quest for personal glory by insisting on perfection.

And that’s just the beginning! For the past several weeks, I’ve been jotting down observations of what exactly it means for me to turn excellence into idolatry.

Confession is good for the soul…and perhaps helpful to others with a similar bent. So here it goes: Continue reading →

When the Ball Is in Your Court

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My journal entries have included a lot of question marks lately, and I’m learning a lot about waiting on the Lord. His timetable isn’t mine…it’s better!

Waiting is far from my favorite pastime, yet, believe it or not, sometimes I wait unnecessarily. Sometimes we wait when really we should act.

The other day I read in Ezra 10:4, “Arise; for this matter belongeth unto thee….” Ezra had just told the people what they needed to do to restore their fellowship with God, but he couldn’t act for the people. He could only share the truth and then say, “The ball is now in your court—you must do something about it.”

Yes, there are times we need to wait on God, but sometimes we use waiting as an excuse for disobedience.

What are times when the ball is in our court? Here are a few: Continue reading →

Tell Me My Shoes Are Outlandish!

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Unlike my sisters, I was not born with a strong sense for fashion. Even a few unfortunate snapshots of me as a little girl display my unique taste of color combinations. And to this day, I occasionally need an outside perspective.

At a recent church retreat, I asked my friend if a particular pair of newly acquired shoes looked okay. She suggested they may look better with a longer skirt (which I now know meant “floor length”!), and I put them back in my suitcase for later.

Later happened to be today, and I cheerfully showed them to her at work as I passed by her office—about 8:03 this morning. “Déirdre, do the shoes look better with this?” I fully expected her enthusiastic approval, but she shook her head and said, “I don’t think it makes much difference.” Then she couldn’t help it and laughed out loud. We both laughed, actually. (Later she described the shoes as “severely glamorous in a not-so-fashionable sort of way.”) Continue reading →