How Can I Become Perfect?

https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2013-08-014-daily-bread-change?category=topics/repentance-and-forgiveness&lang=eng

If you work hard enough, can you become perfect? Of course not!  Being perfect is being like our Heavenly Father and our Savior -- finished, complete, whole. It is a very long term goal that we can desire and work at in this life, and which we might reach sometime in the eternities, but only if we allow our Savior to help us. 

Why can't we become perfect on our own? The fact is that we learn by making mistakes. We do something; experience the consequences, then make a judgement on whether what we did was good or bad. Did it make us happy and bring us peace, or did it make us miserable, and fearful? This is what we are here to do: to learn and grow. Well, we certainly have  making mistakes down pat, and we can even determine if we want to continue that behavior or never do it again, but how can we grow? 


I once watched a movie, Groundhog Day, where the man had to keep repeating the day until he got it perfect. I thought I would go out of my mind as he repeated his day over and over and over again. The movie showed him finally learning and getting the day right. I was so relieved!

In reality, we don't seem to ever "figure it out" by ourselves. We may desire to change, and make a good try, but that is as far as we get. Finally, we become frustrated and discouraged as we endlessly repeat our mistakes. 

The classic example is wanting to lose weight, or get into shape.  Year after year, we try everything; only to fail. We berate ourselves for not having enough "will power".  Sure having a partner, or going to group meetings can help, but we still fail. Why? Why do we keep repeating our mistakes over and over again? Are we just weak? Well, yes. Compared to fully mature beings like our Heavenly Father and our Savior, we are weak, stumbling children. We are here to learn and to become more like them, but like all children, we need adults to help us grow.  

Here is another way of looking at change. I have always thought of my mind as being like a computer with lots of wires connecting ideas. Actually, our mind is far more complex and way beyond mere computers, but it does have all sorts of neural pathways which connect parts of our brain where information is stored. Now, I have amply proven that I am very capable of messing up my computer circuitry, but do you think I could ever fix it? No. It would take a computer expert to untangle the mess I can create. 

Similarly, I need an "expert" with far more knowledge and ability than I have to help me form new connections and remove the "bad" connections I made. I need help in straightening out my life. I need help in undoing my mistakes; in understanding what I did wrong, and in helping live in a way that will make me happy.  

I need help to grow. Growth requires change. I simply go around in circles by myself, always ending up at the same place where I started. I need someone with power beyond my own to help me change, and only the Savior has that power. It is through His power, His gift, which he lovingly offers that we can grow and can become a little more like Him, a little more "perfect", each day.