My Dog's Better than Your Dog

I have got some sort of mental disorder, and after I post this I'll bet those of you who know me will be slightly paranoid to be around me. I'm sure some of you will be happy to tell me which disorder (or combination of disorders) I have.

My family was on a short vacation and I decided to go down from our third-floor room to get a cup of coffee early one morning. I got on the elevator and surveyed my surroundings.

I glanced at the "Don't dare touch this panel unless you're wearing some sort of uniform"-looking section above the "normal person" buttons, and upon noticing that it was labeled "FIREFIGHTERS' OPERATION," I thought, "Yes! They put the apostrophe in the right place."

I turned to my left and read the ad for the coffee I was heading down to purchase. The tagline at the bottom of the ad said, "Just stop by our lobby and enjoy a delicious cup of Starbucks espresso today." This made me think three things:

1) "Wow. That sounds so 1950's."
2) "So 'Starbucks' must be a simple plural word rather than possessive or plural possessive word, like 'coffee filled with starbucks.'" For some reason I'd never paid any attention to this before.
3) "It annoys me when people say 'expresso'" (although I've never looked at a pronunciation guide for the word -- I could be wrong in saying it like it's written, for all I know).

Mercifully, the door then opened to the ground floor and I stepped out.

I'm telling you, I get frustrated with myself sometimes. I couldn't even absent-mindedly take an elevator three floors down without dissecting my surroundings and thinking (in each case except number two above, and arguably the firefighters' panel) that I could've done a better job.

The thing that compounds this kind of thought process and frustrates me further is knowing that I'm not perfect, myself. Friend and blogger Tony M occasionally (and courteously) lets me know when I've committed grammatical sins in my posts, for example.

This mentality makes war in me against the compassionate, Christ-like spirit that Paul writes about in Philippians:

"Is there any encouragement from belonging to Christ? Any comfort from his love? Any fellowship together in the Spirit? Are your hearts tender and compassionate? Then make me truly happy by agreeing wholeheartedly with each other, loving one another, and working together with one mind and purpose. Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too." (Philippians 2:1-4, NLT)

We often live with our faults rather than capturing our rebellious thoughts and teaching them to fully obey Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5). This is not to say that something like obsessive perfectionism in itself is sinful. Its results certainly can be, though.

Posted in: Christianity, Life, Perfectionism, Personality