The Mormon Therapist
As part of my weekly challenge/recommendation I tackled “perfection” in my journal and this is what I came up with:
This word, perfection, just kind of sucks. It’s a word with which one can only have a relationship of perpetual failure. Not one aspect of our creation and being is wired for it. Perfection implies a finite measurement… a finished work of art… an end goal… a completion of sorts. Eternal progression requires no such thing. And so, it’s a concept worth abandoning. Mormon theology challenges the ways this word is generally understood – because even the Mormon divine is one affected by the expanding and ever-changing concept of the possibility of continued progress… which in turn implies constant change. I find great beauty in this. And a profound invitation to wrestle with a concept that’s difficult for my mind to grasp. And to move towards the unknown and the possible, versus a conclusion I may have incorrectly prescribed.
What’s your relationship with the word “perfection” about? No wrong or right answers here… only explorations I hope we can honor in each other.
Natasha Helfer Parker, LCMFT, CST can be reached at natashaparker.org and runs an online practice, Symmetry Solutions, which focuses on helping families and individuals with faith concerns, sexuality and mental health. She hosts the Mormon Mental Health and Mormon Sex Info Podcasts, writes a regular column for Sunstone Magazine and is the current president of the Mormon Mental Health Association. She has over 20 years of experience working with primarily an LDS/Mormon clientele.
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