Imperfect Stenciling

Yesterday found me in a stenciling mood. For weeks I'd sit and watch tv and look above this painting and 'see' that stencil done in brown. I knew it would look just right and now in Real Life, to me, it does. (But good gracious.... that wall is not tan, it is pale yellow. sigh.)

Then, because I'm trying to add more Autumn to my home, I painted over two stencils with different, more Fall-like colors. So while The Mentalist (my current favorite show) played on TNT, I did this:

And this:

And alas, I made mistakes on both of these, but you know? Years ago I stopped making myself insane with dreams of perfection. Painting perfection doesn't even exist in this world, so why aim for it?

Yet there are certain types of perfection. There's obeying God with our whole heart and with motives as pure as they get upon this imperfect planet. There's loving others with as-seen-by-God perfect, sacrificial love. There's trusting God completely with your life, not wavering, not worrying, even a little.

And there's more of that kind of perfection, more as-seen-by-God stuff.

But as for me and stenciling? Nah, you won't find anything close to perfection there.

And that's ok. I'm very happy with yesterday's results. They're still much nicer than what I'd painted before and as I often repeat to myself, better is better, after all.

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Pat wrote a lovely post about perfection here.

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The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart."  1 Samuel 16:7

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