31 Days of Trusting Grace - Day 25 - The Most Important Thing I'll Teach

I say it so they can hear me from where they are seated on the risers.  "That was awesome.  I mean, really awesome.  I know.  You made mistakes.  I made mistakes.  It was still awesome.  And that's the most important thing I will ever teach you about performance.  It's not about perfection.  It's about putting in the hard work and the show going on anyway.  And you did that, and it was excellent.  I am so proud of you."

And I mean every word.  It really is the most important thing I'll teach, that perfection is never the goal.  That things can be wonderful, and beautiful, and awesome without being perfect.  It's something I'm trying to learn myself.  And I've said it before, but I'll say it again because it's true - the beauty is in the imperfections because that's where grace is found.  But seeing that is a choice.

During that performance, I got the speakers all out of order and the lines came out all wrong and then I got so flustered I forgot to give the choir their line and it took an 11 year old boy to get me back on track.  I could kick myself for not having it together.  But since I didn't, there's a little boy who now has a memory of saving the 5th grade program.  My little back stage friend felt his value because of my mistake.  Grace.  

Later that night, when another boy got so nervous he couldn't get his words out?  Parents got to see kids at our school come together to support a classmate in overcoming his fears.  And those kids got to be heroes for a moment, and that boy learned that when we jump off cliffs and press through our fears great things can happen.  Grace.  

It doesn't have to be perfect to be beautiful, to make a lasting difference, to be art.  Imperfections are powerful too, and the showcasing of grace goes on.