Here’s a piece of information I find liberating: None of us are perfect, nor are we expected to be. While I make an effort to do my best at whatever it is I’m doing, in my imperfection I often miss the mark, screw up, or fall short.

While knowing that I’m not perfect frees me up to try, fail and improve, knowing that I’m imperfect also reminds me that with imperfection comes responsibility. When we screw up or say the wrong thing, or a host of other things imperfect people do, we should be quick to:

• Apologize to those we’ve hurt or negatively impacted
• Own our mistakes instead of giving excuses or looking for someone else to blame
• Ask for forgiveness when needed

We should also be quick to avoid expecting perfection from others and be equally quick to show grace to others when they fall short, because isn’t that what we’d like from others?

Let’s work at being responsible with our imperfections, and graceful to others in theirs.