While traveling on highway 9 near Cedar Bluff, I spot a small memorial on the side of the road so I stop to investigate.  The site was that of some small skirmish during the Civil War and there was a flower garden planted here as part of the commemoration of the event.  There were many diverse types of flowers growing in this small plot of ground, some were exotic looking and most were brilliantly colored.  Then when I came to examine this gorgeous specimen I felt I had finally found perfection.

        As I looked down upon the silky white petals they appeared faultless as they danced slowly to the rhythm of the breeze blowing off Weiss Lake.  A dazzling yellow filled the center of the flower and it seemed to almost pulsate with life and energy as I beheld its glory.  I could do nothing but drink in its beauty as I stood there in silence and admiration.  Then as I knelt down to photograph the light streaming through its florescent petals I noticed that my perfect flower had some flaws.

        There were tiny bugs and smudges of dirt that became visible when illumined by the light shining through the flower.  From this vantage point I realized that even though this was a beautiful flower, it was not perfect.  Just like each of us, there are no perfect flowers.  No matter how famous a person may be, or how physically attractive they appear, we all have flaws, blemishes and shortcomings.  There are no perfect people and even the brightest thing in our solar system (the sun) has its spots.  But the greatest fault we can have is to be conscious of none.

        So if today you suddenly realize that you are not perfect, relax, you are just like the rest of us.  Even the most perfect people buy pencils with erasers.  The real question is what we will do with this new knowledge.  Let us resolve to learn from our mistakes, to seek forgiveness when we hurt those around us, to get up when we fall, and to strive to do better tomorrow than we did today.  Let us treat those other imperfect people we meet today with kindness, gentleness and tolerance because we are just like them.  Even though we have all been hurt by our own imperfections, the good news is we can each find forgiveness, healing and a new life beginning today.

Something to think about:

• A fault which humbles a man is of more use to him than a good action which puffs him up.

• Almost all our faults are more pardonable than the methods we resort to hide them.

• Most people are careful drivers; every time they have an accident, it’s the other driver’s fault.

• There is so much good in the worst of us, and so much bad in the best of us,
  That it hardly behooves any of us to talk about the rest of us.

• The farther a man knows himself to be from perfection, the nearer he is to it!

• Deal with the faults of others as gently as with your own.

• It is only imperfection that complains of what is imperfect. The more perfect we are, the gentler and quiet we become toward the defects of others.

Thankful for forgiveness
Rickey Moore