After feeling I’d conquered the step aerobics on my basic Wii Fit system, I decided to add the balance board riser attachment to get a better workout. 

I hadn’t taken into account that the Wii Fit program is calibrated to work with the balance board alone and the riser’s extra height would change my timing. I, also, hadn’t realized just how much I was relying on the feedback from the game system. When my timing is just right, I am rewarded with PERFECT flashing on the screen and a higher score for each step. If I’m slightly off, I get a disappointing OK. If my rhythm is completely off, I get nothing.

After adding the higher step to my routine, I struggled to achieve all those perfect marks and it frustrated me.  I was discouraged until it dawned on me that I was getting the same aerobic exercise whether I got any score, at all. I laughed to think of all the pressure I had been putting on myself just to see the word perfect. My goal was to get exercise for my health and I was achieving that, whether I was perfect or not. I had gotten caught up in the need to be perfect and lost sight of my goal. I needed to remember that perfection is not a realistic standard.

Every one of the millions of people on earth is unique, each one is a miracle, and not one is perfect.

When we set unreasonable demands on ourselves, they tend to carry over onto our demands of others. It makes us less compassionate, less forgiving, less loving.

We should all strive to make the most of our gifts, talents, and opportunities; to do the best we can without the fear of failing to reach perfection.  When we abandon the quest for perfect, we become free to find joy in our best efforts.

Perfection exits only in God’s love, freely given.   Let go of perfect in your own life and trust in God’s perfect love. 

There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

1 John 4:18