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b'I\\u2019m fifty-four years old, and one thing I wish I\\u2019d known about God when I was a teenager is that He doesn\\u2019t expect us to be perfect.\\nAs a teen, I attempted over and over again to do what God said in the Bible. But no matter how hard I tried, I kept failing. I knew God loved me, but I felt so bad when I sinned or made mistakes. I felt like I was disappointing Him. When I read Matthew 5:48, \\xe2\\u20ac\\u0153Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect,\\xe2\\u20ac\\x9d I didn\\u2019t see how I could live up to that seemingly impossible standard. The truth was, I couldn\\u2019t. And God didn\\u2019t expect me to. Looking at the context of this verse reveals that Jesus was teaching a large crowd, and He was building a case that no one could live without doing wrong. No one, except Him.\\nAfter the very first humans went their own way instead of trusting God, humanity was separated from God and doomed to death. Since then, no matter what we do, people can\\u2019t live according to God\\u2019s good ways on our own. But God didn\\u2019t abandon us. Instead, He provided a way for us to be forgiven and made perfect\\u2014complete, mature, whole. Jesus, the Son of God, came to give His life for ours. Jesus lived in total obedience to God; He let Himself be killed, then came back to life to make it possible for us to be perfectly at peace with God. We can\\u2019t live sinless lives in our own strength, but we can be made perfect if we\\u2019ve put our trust in Jesus.\\nIn my own life, I still make plenty of mistakes, and I fall into sin way too often, but I enjoy a relationship with God that is so much more peaceful now. The Holy Spirit keeps teaching me how to live more and more like Christ, but I know I don\\u2019t have to be perfect. Jesus has already made me perfect in God\\u2019s sight and forgiven my sins.\\nI wish I\\u2019d understood that better when I was a teenager, but I\\u2019m glad God showed me this truth now. Young or old, we can all experience peace now as we rest in what Jesus has done for us and accept that we don\\u2019t have to be perfect. \\u2022 Robyn Mulder\\n\\u2022 Do you sometimes feel pressure to be perfect? \\n\\u2022 How might it be freeing to know that Jesus is the only One who can be perfect? \\nTherefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. We have also obtained access through him by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Romans 5:1-2 (CSB)\\n\\xa0\\nRead Verses:\\nPsalms 46:1-11; 27:1-14; Matthew 8:23-27'