Practicing wrong won’t make it perfect … just   permanent.

It’s been said that practice makes perfect. That’s not entirely true.

What is true is that practice makes permanent. Whether you are doing something correctly or not … that is the issue.

• Repeating an incorrect golf swing won’t make your game better – just cement your poor scores into your future scorecards.
• Confessing an untruth about a person’s intentions over and over again will not change it – only stamp it permanently into your failure to restore that relationship.
• Mishandling your finances faithfully, paycheck after paycheck, year after year does not fix anything but will only guarantee your insolvency in a matter of time.
• Devotedly following poor eating habits will not leave you perfect, no matter how much you like jelly filled donuts and double cheeseburgers. You will simply be adding health issues to your future and most likely shortening it at the same time.

So doing anything over and over faithfully will not necessarily help you in life.

Doing the right things … now, that is goal-worthy.

So this week practice doing right things. Things that God tells us are important. Like:

• Practice ‘alone’ time with God and his Word every day.
• Consistently show by words and actions how much you love those you live with.
• Pursue holiness in your personal moral standards and business dealings by living a life that the label “hypocrite” cannot adhere to.
• Pray about literally everything, from things you are thankful for, confused and anxious about and afraid of. Be sure to include difficult relationships in your life in this list.
• Find time and a place to meet with another or several others for spiritual growth and the sharing of life.

Don’t keep doing wrong things until they’ve determined your future. And practice those things that you want to be doing better and better throughout your life.

And as my Mom would say regarding my music lessons, “Practice, practice, practice!”

“The things which you have learned and received and heard and seen in me,

practice these things [in daily life], and the God [who is the source] of peace

and well-being will be with you.” Philippians 4:9 Amplified Bible