Waiting on Perfection

"He that has began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it until the day of Jesus Christ." Philippians 1:6

Ever seen those cars with the sign 'Student Driver'?  Most of us have.  I don't know about you, but I usually try to avoid them.  Whoever is in the driver seat, more often than not, has the timid behavior of a field mouse and drives slower than molasses.  I know that, if I'm behind them, I'll either be late to where I'm headed or end up rear-ending them when they slam on their brakes due to a low-flying bird... or what they THOUGHT was a low-flying bird.

I know its stereotyping and kind of mean, but we've all been in that seat, so you know I'm right.  In the beginning, none of us were the *ahem* EXCELLENT drivers we are now.  It took practice, persistence, prayer, and patience on the part of our teachers to get us through those tremulous first months.

Actually, if you've ever driven in SoCal, you'd think that none of the drivers on the road had graduated from those first months.  But, I digress.

Have you ever known an actual artist?  Most of us have gone to museums, but what you're seeing when you look at those masterpieces is the finished product.  You don't see the practice sketches, the thought process, the doodles, or the pieces that didn't make it.  You don't see the ones the masters even thought weren't half bad, because in their eyes, if it wasn't perfection, it just wasn't.

Nope.  The only thing you're seeing is the shiny, sparkly 1% inspiration that came after that 99% perspiration.  I have a small idea, because my brother in law is an artist.  I've seen some of his stuff from high school and I've even seen one or two of his childhood drawings.  In my opinion -no matter how good I think they are- they aren't nearly as good as what he's doing now.  And the thing is, even when he's doing a piece now, there's a thought process and hours of work (most of the time) to get it to the point to where he's happy.  When you see one of his pieces in the beginning, you have no clue what it will look like, but he knows- or, at least, he has a MUCH better idea than you or I.

And -not to be conceited by lumping myself in with artists, but- when I write, its a process: words crossed out, rewritten, crossed out again; statements written and rewritten; statements said out loud to see how they sound; and -more often than not- everything is a first draft in a lined notebook before typed up.  All of this done so that, when I look at the final product, I'm happy.

Just like any other piece of artwork, we're a process.

I try to remind myself of that fact every time I screw up- with my kids, with my husband, friends... Sometimes I'd just like a shirt that says "Work in Progress- please be patient".  I feel that it would make life a whole lot easier.

Its all too easy to get frustrated with myself when I mess up, but I'm just thankful that this isn't the final product.  I'm not the 'Mona Lisa' yet.  I'm still a sketch- a doodle.  And thank God for that because there are times when I don't just feel like a doodle; I feel like a doodle that wasn't even worthy enough to remain in the sketch pad, so it was torn out, crumbled up, and thrown away.

So, I'll patiently wait til I'm perfected.  While I'm waiting, however, I think I'll buy that shirt.

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