Practice.
We all practice.
When I was young, my pee-wee soccer coach taught us to chant: "Practice 'til your good gets better and your better becomes your best! Yay team!"
Cheesy. I know. But the premise is there.
We practice everyday: Practice at homework. Practice at good manners. Practice at breaking bad habits. Practice at a sport. On and on and on.
Something that I used to hear all the time when I was younger was that this person or that person was a "Practicing Christian".
Interesting.
If we believe in Jesus, we are Christians. Right? So what is a "Practicing Chrisitan"? I know a few people that are Christians, but act like anything but.
We are called to love Jesus. But we should call ourselves to more than that.
As a Christian we should practice obeying the commandments and Jesus' words. Right?
Love thy neighbor. My wife had an outstanding post about this concept. Not just who we want to love, but everybody.
Easy concept, hard when put into practice. Hmmm. Theres that word again.
How about just following Jesus' words. Easy, again 'til we get mired in the trappings of this world.
Practice: avail oneself to; "apply a principle"; "practice a religion".
BUT, another definition is
Practice: exercise: systematic training by multiple repetitions; "practice makes perfect".
We practice because we want to get better at something. We practice because we want to attain a certain level of achievement. We practice because we want to learn something.
It takes practice to UN-learn bad habits. It takes practice to become good at a sport. (Even Michael Jordan was cut from the team in high school)
It takes practice to be a Christian. Being Christian.
Like Pastor Erik posted yesterday "I don't want to settle". I need to practice being Christian.
I want to get better at this. I want to be good at this.
I offer another definition:
Practicing Christian: A person who avails oneself to systematic training by multiple repetitions of following Jesus' words and trying to emulate Him?
"Practice 'til your good gets better and your better becomes your best!"
Lord, help me to be more like you everyday.
3 comments:
Nice post... we compliment eachother well don't we? Tee hee. Seroiusly... if practice doesn't make perfect.... you gotta get somewhere by not giving up!
my coach would always say, "how you practice is how you play"...i have no idea how that is relevant, but anyways..
I liked this blog. It had a good message. Makes me want to practice being a christian more often. I can live morally right, but am I really doing all of what God wants me to do, and am I doing the most/best I can? No, I need to practice harder and give all that I can. We all do in my opinion. We'll not be perfect until everyone is in heaven. I don't think anyone but Jesus can be perfect at anything.
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