Recently while at home recovering from Covid, I decided to tackle a jigsaw puzzle belonging to our daughter. Now, I am not usually a fan of such things. After all, why put ourselves through such torture to create a picture we can already see, only to pull it all apart when we finish?
I persevered for days with those thousand little pieces—at least, there should have been a thousand! Towards the end, I began to suspect I had lost a few—and, alas, I was right. Months earlier, our youngest granddaughter had helped me find all the edge pieces but had soon given up. In haste, I had bundled the puzzle back in the box, thinking we had not dropped any. Yet, days later, I can vaguely remember finding an odd piece or two on our carpet. Perhaps our vacuum cleaner had swallowed up even more pieces?
Whatever the case, when nearing the end of the puzzle, I realised none of those remaining pieces looked anything like the three I needed. However, I decided to keep going—and I’m glad I did. Yes, finishing with an incomplete picture was disappointing. Yet in the process, I made some interesting discoveries.
For a start, I can now admit there may be something exciting and perhaps even addictive about finding the right piece, seeing it fit perfectly and watching that picture grow! This involved using a different part of my brain from that which I need when writing—a novel and refreshing experience indeed.
Then, to my surprise, I also discovered I could actually find the patience and perseverance required to complete this puzzle. Time and time again, I thought I had found the right piece, only for my hopes to be dashed—yet I was able to keep on trying. Perhaps this has to do with all the patience and perseverance God enabled me to have in recent years as I wrote and re-wrote and edited and re-edited entire manuscripts time and time again. And as I thought about this and thanked God for it all, I was also thankful for God’s own patience and perseverance with me over so many years.
My biggest discovery, however, was to realise how much unnecessary angst my perfectionist tendencies have often caused. Normally, I would have been much more annoyed about those missing pieces but, instead, I surprised myself with how calm I was—surely a clear indication of how God has changed me. It was as if God was saying, ‘See how far you’ve come? You did you very best with what you had. Well done!’ That picture I managed to put together, even with its three missing pieces, was still excellent—not perfect, but still excellent. After all, I had managed to match up all those pesky, cat-hair pieces with the right cat—quite a feat, in my opinion, and one I thought several times might well be impossible!
We can learn from God through every circumstance in life, big or small. I hope I continue to do this as I walk through the coming year with God—and I hope you can too.
Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Romans 12:2a NLT
Jo-Anne Berthelsen's Blog 
Reading your latest blog brought something to my mind which I’d like to relate to you. It is nearly three years since my husband was diagnosed with a brain tumour which was going to take his life. Soon afterwards I scraped my car against a barrier while visiting our local health centre for treatment. I was sad when I saw the damage I had done. I made a conscious decision to not allow myself to fret about this. Hard for a person who likes things to be perfect! I knew that I had more to cope with than a damaged car which was insured, anyway. I believe God gave me the grace to do this and to accept that accidents happen.
Hi Sandra! Thanks so much for taking the time to share your own story here of learning to deal with perfectionism–although your example is much more stressful and upsetting, I have to say, than merely missing three pieces of a jigsaw puzzle! I can really empathise with you in that situation, however–but how wonderful that God gave you the grace not to be too upset about it and to realise there were much more important things for you to attend to at that point. God bless.
Hi Jo-Anne,
Happy new year to you and yours, and congratulations on this wonderful and enlightening post. I have been travelling under the radar for some time now, but this post resonated with me. During the covid lockdowns I tried my hand at a jigsaw puzzle. I persevered right to the end (unusual for me), but right at the end I realised that one piece was missing. I became quite frustrated and reiterated that I didn’t like jigsaw puzzles. After the events of last year, where I came so close to losing my beloved Leon on three occasions, I have become far more mindful with regards to what I let upset me. Leon has further complications (needing further surgery) as well as the discovery of a brain stem aneurysm. So, we have a way to go yet, but I know that although life isn’t perfect, God’s love is. Jigsaw puzzles may not be on my immediate agenda, but who knows in the future?
Blessings,
Jo’Anne Griffiths
Lovely to hear from you, Jo’Anne, but so sorry to hear your husband is still battling serious health issues. I remember seeing posts about his battles this past year, but it sounds like there are still other hurdles to jump yet. And yes, lost jigsaw pieces certainly fade into the background when compared with big life puzzles such as you are both going through. God bless you both and bring much healing to Leon in the coming year.