Perfect in Weakness and Spice girl

"What's 'sassy?'" asked Matt.
"Oh, it's like independent, a 'spit-fire'!" answered a gal who loves the Proverbs 31 woman.
"I wouldn't want my wife to 'spit' fire..." whispered my teen-friend Matt.
I'm glad I heard him. It cracked me up. I don't really like the Proverbs 31 woman.
First of all she's perfect. Trying to say she's sassy and therefore not perfect, doesn't cut it with me. I've read it, a lot...she's perfect.
I did notice today that it starts with an interesting question:'A wife of noble character, who can find?'
In other words, she doesn't exist. She an ideal, a model of excellence.
I think trying to obtain her perfection isn't a good idea.
Perfection isn't our goal, pleasing God is!
The same gal who loved the Prov. 31 lady hated this song.
We could have shouted, "jinx..you owe me a coke!" when Danny finished singing it.
Except for one word, I said I 'love' it, she said I 'hate' it.
Read it or listen to it and see if you can figure out why.
I am full of earth
You are heaven's worth
I am stained with dirt, prone to depravity
You are everything that is bright and clean
The antonym for me
You are divinity
But a certain sign of grace is this
From the broken earth flowers come up
Pushing through the dirt
You are holy, holy, holy
All heaven cries
Holy, holy God
You are holy, holy, holy
I want to be holy like You are
You are everything that is bright and clean
And You're covering me with Your majesty
And the truest sign of grace was this
From wounded hands redemption fell down
Liberating man
You are holy, holy, holy
All heaven cries Holy, holy God
You are holy, holy, holy
I want to be holy like You are
But the harder I try the more clearly can I feel
The depth of our fall and the weight of it all
And so this might could be the most impossible thing
Your grandness in me making me clean
Glory, hallelujah
Glory, glory, hallelujah
So here I am, all of me
Finally everything
Wholly, wholly, wholly
I am wholly, wholly
I am wholly, wholly, wholly
Yours

Did you get it? I am full of dirt but God can make flowers push through. Tears, heartache, even this morning I feel them. But I trust that God can make flowers grow through my imperfection and pain. Maybe even because of my imperfection and pain.
Mat. 5: 48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Yikes that's a scary verse. ( and no Eric, she's not the spice girl, that you should say I remind you of when I ask a silly question like that...)
Thankfully that goal is so ridiculously hard that I don't even think my song-hating friend could possibly think she obtains it! That's the point that Jesus was making, 'you can't do this!'
Once a Sunday school teacher of my sons tried to teach them that, like her, they could follow this verse and never fall into sin. Last I heard of her, she "HAD" to get married. Perfection is a very bad goal. (By the way, teens don't know what 'HAD' to get married means anymore, it means she was pregnant.)

2Cor. 12: 9 But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."
Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.

Okay, yeah, that's my kind of verse! My weakness is used by God to make His power perfect.
Awesome, God is so cool.
If you don't know the background of this verse, Paul asks God to please take away something he calls his 'thorn in the flesh.' What that is; we don't know. This morning, I was thinking maybe it's like some pain that I feel, some struggle I'm enduring.
News Flash! We are imperfect!
Thank God that He can use those weaknesses for His purposes!
Phil 2:12 Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed--not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence--continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.

Did you catch the paradox there? Love those paradoxes, paradoxi?
Anyways, 'work out your salvation ...for it is God who works in you...' We are His!

Over ten years ago, I was up in my room crying, "God, I just can't please my husband (Eric, the one who called me 'Scary Spice' this morning!)"and guess what? God answered clearly with, "It's not your job to please him, it's your job to please Me and I am very pleased with you because of Jesus."
It's not my job to be the perfect wife, mother, or Spice girl.
My job is to please God and I trust Jesus for that, so 'game over.'
He is very pleased with me. And guess what again? With the pressure off of trying to 'please Eric' I did please everyone. Peace and happiness and a whole lighter spirit reigned in my life and home. Awesome!

Phil 3:12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13 Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

So weak ones, join with me and press on. Who knows what flowers might pop up!