Romans 3:23

Romans 3:23
I'm nowhere near perfect, but surely I'm good enough. I look at how much I've grown in character, virtue, and good habits and I know it ought to count for something. I look at how many ways I could sin and all the sins committed by other people I know, and I feel even better about myself and my own righteousness.
My measuring stick is wrong. I'm like two children trying to decide which is older by measuring their height against each other. Age is determined by birth date, not height, and righteousness is determined by God's holiness, not the comparative sin of the people around us. And God's holiness is so perfect and so complete that even one tiny and "harmless" sin is too much. By this true standard, I'm nowhere close to where I need to be. The feel-good response I had disappears quickly as I realize that I've committed "slightly" more than one sin in my life (today even...). I am not good enough. I will never be good enough. I have fallen short of the mark and can never recover it on my own.