Keep Growing

Matthew 5:⁴⁸ “You, therefore, must be perfect [growing into complete maturity of godliness in mind and character, having reached the proper height of virtue and integrity], as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (AMPC)

When you remain forgiving, content, and loving, you begin to see people through the filter of perfection. The pidgin English saying states, “Monkey no fine but em mama like am“. In other words, the monkey is not fine, but its mother likes it. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. The classic example: imagine you have a toddler who brings home his class artwork. To you, the artwork is beautiful because your child has drawn his first picture of you. Even though the truth is that if he were not your child, that artwork can be offensive because your head in the drawing looks like a coconut. That picture could be offensive, but because it is your child, that same picture is better than Picasso’s work. It is more beautiful than the finest painting.

So, you put it up on your refrigerator because you are loving, content, and forgiving, so that picture becomes perfect. And that is how life is, you can only be fulfilled when YOU are forgiving, content, and loving. The reason a lot of people are not fulfilled, and their lives feel empty, is that they are not loving, content, and forgiving. Excellence is not perfection. That toddler’s artwork is excellent to the mother, but is it perfection? Of course not. When that child becomes a teenager and still draws your head like a coconut, you can be offended because the child should know proportions and ratios better. In other words, excellence at one level can be mediocre on another level and can be an issue at yet another level.

A child in primary school can score a hundred percent in maths. That hundred percent is excellent, but that score is not perfect. Why? Perfection is perfection across all spectrums. God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. What many people are calling light today, by the time God gives them His light, it becomes darkness. Then they wonder how they could ever have believed what they had was light. So, when the child who scored a hundred percent gets into Secondary School, if he doesn’t grow and is still using the same skill set, he is going to fail. He will not be excellent and can’t claim that he was perfect. And if he scores a hundred percent in secondary school, when he gets into the university, what happens? He has to grow.

So, excellence in primary school is different from excellence in secondary school. And excellence in secondary school is different from excellence in university. You can be excellent, but you will not be perfect.

Prayer: Father, help me to continue growing in Godly maturity in mind and character, in the Name of Jesus. Amen!