I have always loved the writings of St. Francis de Sales because I have always found encouragement in his admonitions to be gentle with ourselves. He wrote, "Patience is the one virtue which gives greatest assurance of our reaching perfection, and while we must have patience with others, we must also have it with ourselves."
Of course, that is a tall order, but St. Francis was well aware that the person each of us is hardest on is often ourselves. We can accept the shortcomings and idosyncrasies of others, especially our friends, but we beat up on ourselves for the slightest imperfection.
Warts of "not good enough" seem to pop out all over the place when we look in the mirror each morning. I can't image God feels really good about that.
Rather, he must feel like the little child who has just created a crayon masterpiece only to be told by the teacher that maple trees are not purple and dogs do not have wings.
Well, maybe not in her world, but in the eyes of the Artist, the work is perfect.
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