Why the new name?

After a few weeks of re-formatting and contemplating, I finally feel satisfied with my "new" blog.  And I am so excited about it!  A few nights ago my husband and I spent hours trying to figure out the right name.  We had both been thinking about new names on and off for weeks, but came up with nothing.  Finally, we decided to get serious and put our thinking caps on, rattling off name after name.  Some good. Some not so good.  It had to be clever, simple, and true to my personality.  Most importantly, it had to sum up the overarching theme I envisioned for this blog.  After what seemed like 20 hours of thinking, I felt defeated.  At one point I thought, "Who cares? It doesn't need a name!  It will be the no-name blog."  But finally, my wonderful husband stated -- like he had known all along -- "What about 'Pursuit of Imperfection?'" YES!  That's it!  Clever, simple, very me, and exactly what I want my blog to be about!  Ugh, why hadn't I thought of that!?  I just love the name!  Let me explain why it's so perfect.

Too often in life we strive for perfection, being disillusioned that perfection even exists.  We long for the perfect marriage, perfect children, perfect friendships, perfect house, perfect body...and so on.  It's exhausting!  Perfection does not exist because we live in a broken world.  The sooner we realize this and make peace with it, the better off we'll be.  Guess what? Steve and I fight!  My children misbehave.  I make mistakes as a parent.  I have crumbs on the floor as old as fossils. I have stretch marks and a muffin top.  Sure, all this stuff stinks, but it's life.

The good news?  In our mistakes and moments of failure we are being refined.  We are being molded into the person God intended us to be.  Ultimately into the image of Christ.  God uses our mistakes, failures, and even suffering to refine us.  I love the verses Psalm 66:10-12;

"For You, O God, have tested us; You have refined us as silver is refined.  You brought us into the net; You laid affliction on our backs.  You have caused men to ride over our heads; We went through fire and through water; But You brought us out to rich fulfillment."

Now, we can get into a deep theological discussion about whether God allows and/or brings about affliction in our life, but I think I'll save that for another night.  Either way, he takes the ugly moments and turns them into "rich fulfillment!"  How awesome is that!  This verse is dripping with hope!  We don't have to work our tails off to reach perfection, God does all the heavy lifting.  We just have to allow Him to work in our life  He is chiseling away at us, and while the chisel might hurt, the end product is beautiful.  I can read every parenting, marriage, and self-help book out there to try and perfect my life, but only God can do that.  So I am going to pursue God, not worldly perfection.  I'm going to embrace my imperfection and let God use it for His glory and ultimately for my eternal benefit.  So that's why the name is perfect.  Got it?! Good!  Phew, I'm glad I got that out of the way.

That said, I'm not sure how crumbs on the floor and stretch marks come into play.  Whatever, that's just my reality.  With the new name comes new ideas. I plan on sharing my passions, encouraging thoughts, new insights and fun ideas in a manner that's honest and authentic.  No facades here!  We're all in this life together, in all our glorious imperfections.

I do have one teeny-tiny request.  I created a poll on my blog as a means to get ideas for future posts.  Please take a moment, humor me, and answer the questions.  It will be fun to see the results!

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this, and I hope you enjoy the "new" blog as much as I do.  I can't wait to write!  Now if I could just find more time.

*Thank you to my husband for editing this post.  I'm sure it's the last thing you want to do at 11:15 at night, especially since you write and edit all day long.