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There are many hills and valleys in the spiritual life. We may try to reform our ways and start to progress in virtue, but then we fall back into old habits.
It can be tempting to give up when we experience such failures, throwing up our arms in despair.
However, in our desire for perfection, we need to be realistic and be confident in the mercy of God.
Our purification on earth won't end until death
St. Francis de Sales relates to this common experience in his Introduction to the Devout Life:
[T]hat we must needs be brave and patient, my daughter, in this undertaking. It is a woeful thing to see souls beginning to chafe and grow disheartened because they find themselves still subject to imperfection after having made some attempt at leading a devout life, and well-nigh yielding to the temptation to give up in despair and fall back.
The first part of his advice is to always keep things in perspective. Rarely does anyone instantly become a saint. In reality it is a much longer road that doesn't end until death:
The work of the soul’s purification neither may nor can end save with life itself;—do not then let us be disheartened by our imperfections,—our very perfection lies in diligently contending against them, and it is impossible so to contend without seeing them, or to overcome without meeting them face to face.
Instead of giving up in despair, we need to let God the Father pick us up, brush us off, and set us back on the road to virtue.
We need to have a much longer view in mind, realizing that we can only progress by small steps, always going forward.
Another important spiritual reality to remember is that God is a loving Father, always ready and willing to take us into his arms.
Whenever we fall, we should run like a little child into God's loving embrace.
