Reflection: On Perfection and Grace

Though it’s edged into September and I’m eager to cozy up with a blanket, I’ve been reflecting on August—a month marked by pushing Yellow Flower into being. With that has come a battle I know all too well: the tug of perfectionism.

I’ve found myself thinking, If I refine this product just a little more, add one more brushstroke, draft another Instagram reel, clean my studio a bit longer…then it will finally be good enough.

But I know this pattern. I was the girl who wanted straight As in college, the teacher who crafted lesson plans down to the minute. And yet, perfectionism doesn’t line up with painting—or with starting a business.

What would happen to my paintings if I forced them into being “perfect”? What would that even look like? And what would happen to my heart? Frustration. Discouragement. Dissatisfaction.

If you wrestle with this too, I invite you to ask similar questions of your own life. What does striving for perfection leave you with?

For me, I’ve had to remember gospel truth. The Bible is bold—even offensive—because it takes away our ability to believe we can ever achieve perfection on our own. Paul writes, “You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace” (Galatians 5:4). In other words, our efforts to earn righteousness are vain—they won’t work.

But Scripture doesn’t stop there. It also tells us that God “has clothed me with the garments of salvation” and “covered me with the robe of righteousness” (Isaiah 61:10). The truth is simple: our efforts to be perfect will never succeed, but God offers to clothe us with His salvation and declare us righteous in Christ.

I’ve had to sit with this truth again and again over the past month. It’s what steadies me when I start to head down the endless chase of perfection.

So, here’s to painting, creating, and living —not in the pressure of perfection, but in the rest of grace.