ideals

I have written before about perfectionism and how the Lord has been highlighting perfectionism in my life. And also how perfectionism is not being perfect but trying to live up to unrealistic ideals.
Over the last year I have really enjoyed reading home decorating/do-it-yourself blogs. I often come away inspired about a new way to decorate or rearrange my furniture or sew throw pillows or even paint my dining room chairs! But sometimes I can come away from the computer feeling like I wasted time and feeling discouraged about how far from ideal my house is. I start to build ideals of what my house should look like and list in my head all the ways my house does not meet up. This can be very defeating. Oh those stupid ideals.
While looking at home decorating blogs I started to get this picture in my head of what the "perfect" living room would look like along with the "perfect" couch. It would be sleek and clean and white and well, perfect.
So in the meantime friends of ours were going to sell their sectional couch on craiglist but felt they were to give it to us instead and approached us about it on my birthday none the less. Here's the catch, I almost turned down their offer because I wasn't looking for a sectional. It wasn't in my ideal picture in my head of what I wanted the living room to look like. But in the end we accepted their offer and you know what? I love it! It is perfect for our family and the stage we are in now. We can all lay and prop up our feet at the same time while we eat popcorn and watch movies. It is super comfy and great for lounging and reading books.
I realized recently I almost missed out on what was being offered me because of my ideals. The funny thing is if I would have gotten my dream couch I probably wouldn't have let anyone sit on it because it would have been too perfect! :)
The couch may seem like a little thing but it opened my eyes to how much ideals can hinder us from enjoying what is being offered to us now!

Lord help me let go of my ideals and open my eyes to see the goodness that lies right in front of me. Amen.