Progress over perfection.

This short, powerful phrase popped into my brain while walking my beagle this morning. I confess my beagle is a pretty reactive dog, and yup, he is ALL beagle when it comes to noise level. ‘Arrooo-roo-roo’ and ‘A-wooo’ are common, sometimes constant sounds at our house. I love the deep, mournful howls and the playful bays of my beagle, but I know there are other people in the world, too, so I try my best to minimize his beagle-ness when we are out. I watch other dogs walk by on the sidewalk (across the street from us cuz we do keep our distance to help) that are controlled, not pulling their leash, and quiet as a mouse. All the while, I’m holding tight on our leash just in case, talking calmly to my beagle, stepping in between to let him know I’ve got him, because I believe most of his reaction is because he feels like he needs to protect me. As this all unfolds, I catch myself thinking for a moment, ‘Ugh, I wish my beagle would just chill and stop pulling so hard and reacting to every dog that comes by.’ I quickly stop myself with those words from the beginning of this blog, ‘progress over perfection.’ 

When my beagle was a puppy, he bayed and howled the entire walk! I mean, when people were around, when other dogs were around, but even more so when we were solo on the sidewalk. When a beagle or hound catches a scent, y’all, all bets are off, and my beagle was an expert at catching a scent from puppyhood. We of course kept at it, did not give up, and consistently practiced with some commands, exercises, and yes TONS of treatos for motivation.

When I have ‘ugh’ moments walking my beagle today of him pulling on the leash, I think to myself, ‘Wow! He has come a long way from howling the entire way while pulling to just pulling when we pass dogs.’ That’s amazing progress in my eyes.

We, as people, are the same with our goals (or New Year’s Resolutions, being January). We can easily get frustrated when our goals are not being met as quickly as we think. We can start to compare ourselves to other people, and that is a dangerous slope in so many ways. 

We do not have to be perfect, and spoiler alert, no one is perfect. Thankfully, that is okay because guess who was absolutely perfect for us? Jesus! When I’m beating myself up over a goal like reading the bible daily, getting back in shape physically, eating healthy for health reasons, or any other goal I set out to conquer, I have to stop myself to remember that I do not do anything alone. God is with me through all my struggles, my failures, and frustrations. He does not expect us to be perfect in what we do. All God wants is for us to love Him and to love other people like Jesus taught and showed us. 

So the next time you catch yourself disheartened, overwhelmed, ashamed, or drained from trying to meet a goal, remember God is with you. All you have to do is consistently show up and try to bring everything to God. He’s got you!

See ya in the next post, with

✝️Lots of Faith & Lil’ Bit of Fur 🐾,

Melanie Drews-Paws on God’s Path