Perfect Love, and the deceiver....

I am trying to figure out why, where it began, where we all get the idea that "we must be perfect"....I see it in my children and I wondered if I have misled them somehow and I wonder how I can correct this problem, because we need to change our hearts and our was of thinking so we do not get into a cycle of self destructive behavior. We can strive for "perfection" but we need to realize that it is a very long process, and something that is not even attainable on our own. I need to switch our thinking to "trying our best in all things, knowing that we will probably fall short and THAT IS OK". It is not about who wins, it is about how we play the game....BUT the deceiver is doing an excellent job. He plays on these ideas we have so masterfully. He lies and we believe him. We get caught up in a negative cycle of imagined failure and the claiming of shame and guilt that is not our own....it is a trap, and it is the most fantastic trap and it works so well. There is another side though, one that is hard to see from the dark pit that we so often find ourselves at the bottom of. Our Heavenly Father's Love is Perfect and if we LET him, he will make up for our short comings if we just embrace the fact that we are not perfect, we can not do it on our own, but if we do our best in all we do (and acknowledge and take responsibility when we don't and change our ways) he has ALREADY "paid the difference" for where we fall short. The deceiver has been working hard on me lately, trying to discourage me from the path that I know is right, playing on very real emotions and concerns, but twisting them to make me feel bad about where I fall short....which is why I am writing this post, because perhaps if I write it down, I will be able to read it and remember when I am feeling a little bit of that shame and guilt that I will remember that our Savior has ALREADY paid the difference, and I just have to try my best. I am not capable of doing everything and it is not about being perfect, it is our effort that counts. My heart is in the right place and I need to allow him to share my burden, because HE CAN NOT just take it from me....I HAVE to LET him. *I* feel My Saviors LOVE, in all the world around me. I taste it in the wonderful food I am able to grow in my garden. I hear in beautiful music that calms my soul. I smell it in the clean air after a storm. I see it when my husband looks at me. I touch that love when I held my newborn babies. I feel his love when I acknowledge him in all things.