This story appears here courtesy of TheChurchNews.com. It is not for use by other media.
By Aimee Cobabe, Church News
Editor’s note: This is part three of a four-part series on recent research related to toxic perfectionism. Part one, “Latter-day Saints’ Unique Outlook,” is here. Part two, “The Role of Grace,” is here.
Researchers at Brigham Young University have found that toxic perfectionism can have profound impacts on a person’s faith. But they also found that faith and religious observance can serve as an antidote to unhealthy perfectionism.
Debra Theobald McClendon is a clinical psychologist who joined professors at BYU in writing about the impacts of toxic perfectionism in the December issue of BYU Studies Quarterly.
McClendon wrote that the perfectionist’s faith may be strong and equal to the faith of others, yet their unhealthy perfectionism paralyzes them spiritually with a cloud of anxiety. She continued: “Unhealthy perfectionism does not enhance a person’s quality of life or motivate them to improve; instead it decreases their quality of life and inhibits true personal growth and development.”
“Unhealthy perfectionism does not enhance a person’s quality of life or motivate them to improve; instead it decreases their quality of life and inhibits true personal growth and development.”The process of breaking free from unhealthy perfectionism can include both gospel and clinical approaches, according to McClendon. This article covers the gospel approaches; part four of this series will cover the clinical approaches.
Gospel Perspectives
McClendon highlighted three doctrinal principles that can promote healing from unhealthy perfectionism.
“If we pay attention to the way the doctrine is taught, we’ll understand that the gospel of Jesus Christ is actually freeing us from the shackles of toxic perfectionism,” McClendon said.
1. ‘We Don’t Perfect Ourselves’
McClendon pointed to several scriptures that illustrate this principle:
- Ephesians 2:8–9: “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.”
- 2 Nephi 2:3, 6: “I know that thou art redeemed, because of the righteousness of thy Redeemer … Redemption cometh in and through the Holy Messiah; for He is full of grace and truth.”
- Doctrine and Covenants 76:69: “These are they who are just men made perfect through Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, who wrought out this perfect atonement through the shedding of His own blood.”
2. ‘We Become Perfected in Christ’
“The Atonement works as we, imperfect mortals, join with a perfect Christ in a covenant relationship,” she wrote. “It is then through His perfection and power (His merits) that we become perfected in Him.”
She then uses additional scriptures to illustrate this companionship:
- Revelation 1:5: “Jesus Christ … washed us from our sins in his own blood.”
- Moroni 10:32–33: “Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him … then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ. … If ye by the grace of God are perfect in Christ, and deny not his power, then are ye sanctified in Christ by the grace of God, through the shedding of the blood of Christ, which is in the covenant of the Father unto the remission of your sins, that ye become holy, without spot.”
3. ‘Perfection Comes Only in and Through Jesus Christ After the Resurrection’
“The process of becoming perfected in Christ is a journey that extends well beyond this mortal probationary time into the eternities,” McClendon wrote.
She quoted President Russell M. Nelson from a talk given in October 1995 titled, “Perfection Pending.”
Then a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, President Nelson taught: “Just prior to His crucifixion, [Jesus] said that on ‘the third day I shall be perfected.’ Think of that. The sinless, errorless Lord — already perfect by our mortal standards — proclaimed His own state of perfection yet to be in the future. His eternal perfection would follow His resurrection and receipt of ‘all power’ … in heaven and in earth.”
He then continued, pointing out that the Lord commanded in Matthew 5:48: “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” But after His own resurrection, in 3 Nephi 12:48, Jesus Christ now included Himself along with the Father, as One who was perfect: “Therefore I would that ye should be perfect even as I, or your Father who is in heaven is perfect.”
Reframing Negative Thought Patterns
Some people may tend to look at scriptures with a negative bias. But recognizing that tendency is a step toward healing, according to McClendon.
“If I’m interpreting this particular scripture … in a way that says God is going to condemn me and abandon me, that’s not consistent with what we understand about a loving God whose sole purpose is to bring about the immortality and eternal life of His children,” McClendon said. “Now, once you have that recognition, I think you can move forward and say, ‘I’ve got to start changing some of these beliefs that I have.’”
Copyright 2025 Deseret News Publishing Company.