I don't have to be perfect... yet

One of the things I've struggled with throughout my life is "running faster than I have strength" when it comes to trying to follow Christ. I often will have a spiritual experience and afterwards I'll have a compulsion to sprint down the straight and narrow. But every time I've tried this, I've burned myself out and ended up discouraged and depressed. I read this quote a couple days ago, and it is a comforting reminder that the Lord does not require me to go to extremes to please Him.

“You don't have to live a life that's truer than true. You don't have to have an excessive zeal that becomes fanatical and becomes unbalancing. What you have to do is stay in the mainstream of the Church and live as upright and decent people live in the Church--keeping the commandments, paying your tithing, serving in the organizations of the Church, loving the Lord, staying on the straight and narrow path. If you're on that path when death comes--because this is the time and the day appointed, this the probationary estate--you'll never fall off from it, and, for all practical purposes, your calling and election is made sure.”

Bruce R. McConkie 1982 address given at the U of U

Also, as I continue to fall short, often making the same mistake over and over again, I find comfort in this scripture first pointed out to me by my mission president: 

Speaking of whom the Lord blesses with Spiritual gifts the scripture reads:

"For verily I say unto you, they are given for the benefit of those who love me and keep all my commandments, and him that seeketh so to do;"

D&C 46:9

I definitely fall into the "him that seeketh so to do" category and even in that I fall short. It's only in the last few years that I've started to understand this principle, and apply it to my life, and it's helped me to pace myself, for life is a marathon, not a hundred meter dash.