God does not smile only when you succeed

After breaking a resolution, perhaps you imagine God with the same look of disappointment you feel toward yourself. You confuse your anger, your shame, and the blow to your pride with what he feels for you. Holiness takes sin seriously and starts over. Perfectionism, by contrast, needs to do everything right to feel acceptable. That is why a fall can lead it more toward isolation than toward forgiveness: it gazes so much at its own performance that it stops looking at the Father. God does not celebrate harm, but neither does he stop seeing you as a child. His love makes it possible to acknowledge the fault without disguising it, go to confession when appropriate, make amends, and get up. His smile does not reward flawlessness; it reminds you that you can still return and walk with him.