What's that old saying? Practice makes perfect...

When I was younger, I was in band. It wasn't by choice... it was the manditory elementary band. I played the clarinet.... not my first choice... it was always in the back of my mind that I sounded like a dying duck when I played. The phrase I heard the most...

Practice makes perfect.

I didn't practice... it was my achille's heel. I wanted to be awesome at things, but I had no follow through. Sure, I wanted to (insert skill here)... I just didn't want to take the time to practice to be good at it... I was lazy. Practice is something that we have to do in order to be better at something. There are exceptions to every rule, however, for those of us that aren't prodigies... we have to work at what we love to do.
Footballers don't just lay about until a game... they practice. Actors and musicians have rehearsals. Writers have blogs, journals and other outlets to practice their craft. The list goes on and on.
One of my favorite Jane Austen novels is Pride and Prejudice. One of the characters, Lady Catherine de Bourgh is a laggard whose only accomplishment in life was being born to a wealthy family. In one scene in the novel, during a discussion about playing the piano, Lady Catherine remarks, “If I had ever learnt, I should have been a great proficient.” She has never learned how to play, she simply announces that if she had actually put any effort into it, she would have been amazing.

So what am I getting at?

Isn't this idea of practice relevant in our Christian life? We cannot just expect to acknowledge Jesus during the appropriate times and then go on with our lives as if we are no different than the person next to us. We should be different.
We should be "practicing" every day we are given...

What should we be practicing?

1. Prayer

When I pray by myself... I'm simply having a conversation. Just me and God having a chat... there is no pressure, there is no flustered babbling... it is just the two of us (and now that song is in my head), which is what prayer is really all about. God commands us to pray... He knows what I struggle with, but he wants me to talk to him openly about it. He knows what I'm dealing with, but he wants to hear it from me. The same should be true when I pray out loud in front of people... I am not praying for their ears... but God's. My petitions need no eloquent speech to make them worthy of the throne room.
We are told to pray in everything. The good, the bad, the temptation... and I know that... but sometimes... just sometimes...

I would rather pretend that God can't see me making the bad decision or saying something that I will regret later, instead of just handing my anger and frustrations over to God... but I am so very good at worrying and fretting over something silly or opening my mouth and eating my foot. I squirrel things away in the deep places of my heart instead of being open and vulnerable before God. When I do that, I find my prayer life becoming stagnant and awkward. When this happens I stop praying. Not because I don't have anything to say... believe me, I always have plenty to say (just ask my husband)... I have let sin fester in my heart and I am embarrassed to admit it. But 1 John 1:9 reminds me that: If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
I must decrease in order for God to increase in my life... His will, not mine be done... that is what I always need to remember. I Thessalonians 5:17 tells us to pray without ceasing. Simply talk to God.

2. Read your Bible

I love reading... I have always loved reading. The rub? I didn't always like reading the Bible. The old Testament confused me, the New Testament covicted me... and well, I wasn't a fan of feeling bad about something stupid I had done. The problem with that? When I told people that I was a Christian, the questions would come at me and I had no answers.
My reading palatte has expanded in the past few years to include some great Apologists of the past and present. I'm slowly beginning to dig into the Bible and really study what it says... work through passages that confuse me... that sort of thing. I can't just open the Bible and expect the meaning and context to just hit me... although sometimes it does blindside me in a wave of "God is awesome" or "Oh, that's what that means". Psalm 119:10-11 reads: With my whole heart I have sought You; Oh, let me not wander from Your commandments! Your word I have hidden in my heart, That I might not sin against You. When we are in the word, we are keeping our lives and hearts in tune with God. When we are questioned about our faith, we will know where to turn and not get stuck like I used to.
As we mature in our faith, we should be less inclined to be lazy in our faith... God wants us to chase after Him... to thirst for His goodness. God loves us with a wild and untamable love.
Will your response be to chase after God? If God is our passion, shouldn't we want to know all that we can? 2 Timothy 2:15-16 answers that for us: Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who doesn’t need to be ashamed, correctly teaching the word of truth. But avoid irreverent, empty speech, for this will produce an even greater measure of godlessness.
Lady Catherine’s fantasy allowed her to overlook her own laziness and pretend that she owed her lofty position to intrinsic merit rather than an accident of birth...
Romans 8:17 tells us that we are heirs of God, with an amazing birthright... but this shouldn't make us complacent... after all

Practice makes perfect.

God is like a dentist...

When I was younger, I was scared to death of Dentists.

It's not a bad experience that created this phobia, it was simply the pain. I'm not a sissy when it comes to pain, but when it comes to my teeth, I can't handle it.
The culmination of the bad dentist experience is the root canal... it's when the root and pulp are beginning to decay and the dentist has to go in and remove that stuff so that you are not in pain anymore or end up with an abscess (which I've heard are far more painful).
What am I getting at here?

SIN

Stick with me here.
When I was younger, I was diligent about caring for my teeth. I had heard that cavities were bad... that they hurt. I didn't want anything to do with that, so I flossed, I brushed and I took care of my teeth. As I got older, some of the things that I was so diligent at took a sideline. Yes, I brushed my teeth, but I would only floss every other day. Flossing soon stopped altogether, and I would forget to brush my teeth before I went to bed. Then the dreaded first cavity.... (enter the scary music)... I freaked out. I had to be honest with the dentist that I was getting lazy. It was embarrassing.
It changed my behavior for the next few months... after all, I didn't want that experience again. I was diligent in my brushing and flossing.... and soon it changed to what it was before. I wasn't flossing every day, I was forgetting to brush at night.

The next time I went, I found that I had to go to a specialist for a root canal.

YIKES!

I can honestly say, it was pretty painful. Chewing was difficult for a couple of days after the permanent crown was put on. I'm keeping up with brushing and doing the mouthwash thing... but I still only floss when there is something stuck in my teeth. Dentists still scare me, but it's more the thought that I have failed at perfect dental hygiene.

Can you relate?

we go to the dentist on a regular basis, and no matter how many times we come in with cavities, they remove them. They chastise us and remind us of the importance of dental hygiene and we go on with our lives.

Are you still with me?

When I first became a Christian, I was excited to learn more. I loved going to awana and sunday school. As I got older, I would read my Bible, I prayed and listened to worship music... But as time wore on, I would forget something one day and quickly make up the next day... then I was willing to let it slip. I wouldn't read my Bible for a week, or I would not pray as much as I should... that was when I would let sin into my life. A small thing at first... and it would grow. If I let it get too far, it would have consiquences, which would hurt... I'd quickly repent of my sin and go back to reading my Bible and praying and going to church. I was scared of God... I didn't want the spiritual smackdown that I knew was coming.
We all know this cycle... we let one thing slip and then we are willing to compromise in another area of our lives. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that most Christians know what I am talking about... and if you didn't raise your hand... well... I hate to break it to you... we aren't perfect... we've all sinned... but there is not a huge Godly smackdown awaiting us... there is only grace.
In college, things got worse. I didn't go to church except when I was at home. I would sit through chapels and ignore what the speaker would say and I was more interested in boys than I was in my spiritual life. But I was really good at faking it. I could pretend better than most people. I prayed when I was in trouble or needed a little help from on high... After running for a while longer, I found that giving in to sin only makes things worse... it hurst more when you come back to God and ask him to remove those sinful desires from your life. It's painful and there are scars... reminders of what a life of sin can do.
These days, I'm in my Bible almost every morning, working through a verse or passage that has caught my attention. I try to listen to more positive music and my prayer life is more like a conversation than prayer.... something will get stuck occasionally, but I turn to God for help, instead of relying on my own abilities and know how to get me out.
We are all guilty of sin... but the best thing about grace? Romans 8:1 is a reminder that there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus.
No matter how many times we messup or fail, God is right there waiting for us when we turn around. Sometimes, we find that he's been carrying us, because we are no longer able to move.
So you see, God is like a dentist. He removes our sin... it will hurt, but he is doing it for our good. The removal of that sin helps us have a healthier spiritual life. It wil save us a lot of pain in the future! Have a wonderful and blessed Friday!

Use your words...

Words... they are all around us... the are spoken, sung, yelled, whispered and written. They communicate what we need, or they remain unspoken. When combined, they form questions, statements, demands and much more... they form friendships, build bridges... but they can also tear them down. They can build up or destroy... and in their most basic of uses, express.
Words are formed when we mouth our lips and mouths in different movements. Vowels, consonants, diphthongs, emphasis are based on the placement of the tongue. Sometimes when we speak we choose our words to spare the feelings of those around us and other times we fly off the handle and let our tongues express what we should keep silent and in our heads.
James even writes about the tongue... a whole chapter dedicated to this small part of our bodies. We often don't think about it being a big deal... we run our mouths, sometimes letting hurtful things escape and then wonder why the people around us don't want to talk to us.
Ephesians 4:29 reminds us: Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.
Building us others [...] that it may benifit those who listen. my sarcastic and sometimes snarky side is ashamed as I write this. I know that I am not perfect, but I can take steps to guarding others from the bile that so readily spits out around certain people. This often comes in the form of me remaining silent in their presence... as the adage goes:

If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all.

I used to really like the movie Ella Enchanted, and I still like many of the values that it shares, in one scene Ella is told to hold her tongue... and she literally takes hold of her tongue. Those of you that know the story, know that when she was born, she was given the gift of doing what she was told by her fairy Godmother Lucinda. When her mean step sister finds out the secret, she uses this to her advantage, making Ella do exactly what she wants her to.
We all utilize the three learning styles, visual, verbal and kinesthetic... or if you're like me, you use all three... but as I watched that scene again this morning, it really drove the point home.
Instead of letting our tongue have power over us, take the time to think before you speak and if necessary, hold your tongue...
We can either use our words to encourage and build up, or we can tear down those around us until we have no one left... James tells us that our tongues weild great power, like a small spark can ignite a forest... our tongues can get us into a world of trouble. He also reminds us that out of our mouths come blessing and cursing and it should not be this way.
Use your words wisely and build up those around you.