Imperfect Steps Toward Perfection

"Thou shalt be perfect with the Lord thy God" (Deuteronomy 18:13). We tend to think that perfection is one flawless effort. I'm going to go out there and be the perfect parent, the perfect tithe payer, the perfect missionary, never failing or stumbling or falling. We think that if we just plan it right, if we just build up enough willpower and prepare everything just so, then we can pull off perfection the first time and the Lord can take the day off and never even need to apply the Atonement on our behalf because we did it one hundred percent right the first time. But being perfect is not about never needing help from the Lord. The path to perfection is filled with nothing but failed and flawed and imperfect attempts to be perfect. We go out there and we try to be a perfect parent or tithe payer or missionary and we fail to be perfect. Over and over and over. And failure is hard. It hurts us, it hurts those we love, and it hurt the Lord when He suffered for our sins. And if we simply failed with no hope for improvement that would be a terrible thing to face every day. But each time we fail, we learn one imperfect way to do that thing. And as we collect these imperfect attempts, we start to progress towards the perfect path by process of elimination. When Thomas Edison was trying to invent the lightbulb and failed a hundred times, he said, I've discovered a hundred ways to not create a lightbulb. We are on this Earth to learn line upon line. Perfection is marching down a hundred bad roads until we find that one road that works. And thankfully, God will be with us in all of our attempts. When we are with God, we can be perfect with God. He will perfect our imperfections. He will make up for our lack until we get it right.