I hope it’s more than my ability to hunt and peck type here.
Is worth defined only by what we do?
I am working on being worthy enough to return to the temple, one of my
new year’s goals. I just got back from volunteering in my Maxwell’s first grade
classroom. I feel that our teachers are worth so much more than what they get
paid, never mind that Lexy is a teacher. After my once a week, 4 hrs in the morning time in my
kiddos’ classrooms, I text my sister Lacer and praise her for her work as an
elementary teacher and then I take a nap because I am exhausted.
My Grandma Baugh and I love exchanging books, magazine articles, devotional thoughts, letters and emails. Recently we shared our concerns that we have in our individual spiritual progress. When I think of celestial material I think of her. Here is one of the things that she's sent to me from Music and the Spoken Word :
“Try Your Best”
No one ever does everything perfectly right all the time. Each of us makes mistakes and falls short
of perfection. That’s life, and that’s OK.
Broadway musical star Idina Menzel shared how she came to this realization. Recently, she wrote:
“There are about 3 million notes in a two-and-a-half-hour musical; being a perfectionist, it took me a
long time to realize that if I’m hitting 75 percent of them, I’m succeeding. . . . I am more than the
notes I hit, and that’s how I try to approach my life. You can’t get it all right all the time, but you can
try your best. If you’ve done that, all that’s left is to accept your shortcomings and have the courage
to try to overcome them.”1
It’s not that lofty goals, big plans, and high expectations are bad. We grow by stretching, by
courageously striving to achieve more than we previously thought possible. But growth also
requires patience and perspective. Sometimes we give up on ourselves too early, we start to define
ourselves by our mistakes, or we expect perfection and are therefore forever disappointed. When
this happens, we may need to ease up and simplify our lives.
For an overwhelmed college student, that meant lightening her schedule and her expectations a bit.
For a busy mother, it meant deciding to go a little easier on herself and her children. For all of us, it
can mean that we simply do our best - not someone else’s best.
We are all far more than the notes we hit - or fail to hit. Perhaps we should define ourselves not by
what we are today but by what we can be, by what we aspire to be. Wherever those aspirations are
leading us, let us accept that success can happen over time, little by little. With this perspective, our
mistakes and shortcomings can teach us instead of condemn us. In reality, this is what it means to
do our best.
Thank you my Grandma Baugh you are the BEST.
“Try Your Best”
No one ever does everything perfectly right all the time. Each of us makes mistakes and falls short
of perfection. That’s life, and that’s OK.
Broadway musical star Idina Menzel shared how she came to this realization. Recently, she wrote:
“There are about 3 million notes in a two-and-a-half-hour musical; being a perfectionist, it took me a
long time to realize that if I’m hitting 75 percent of them, I’m succeeding. . . . I am more than the
notes I hit, and that’s how I try to approach my life. You can’t get it all right all the time, but you can
try your best. If you’ve done that, all that’s left is to accept your shortcomings and have the courage
to try to overcome them.”1
It’s not that lofty goals, big plans, and high expectations are bad. We grow by stretching, by
courageously striving to achieve more than we previously thought possible. But growth also
requires patience and perspective. Sometimes we give up on ourselves too early, we start to define
ourselves by our mistakes, or we expect perfection and are therefore forever disappointed. When
this happens, we may need to ease up and simplify our lives.
For an overwhelmed college student, that meant lightening her schedule and her expectations a bit.
For a busy mother, it meant deciding to go a little easier on herself and her children. For all of us, it
can mean that we simply do our best - not someone else’s best.
We are all far more than the notes we hit - or fail to hit. Perhaps we should define ourselves not by
what we are today but by what we can be, by what we aspire to be. Wherever those aspirations are
leading us, let us accept that success can happen over time, little by little. With this perspective, our
mistakes and shortcomings can teach us instead of condemn us. In reality, this is what it means to
do our best.
Thank you my Grandma Baugh you are the BEST.
No comments:
Post a Comment