08/10/20 WHAT PRACTICE MAKES — Over the last few years, I’ve played the same golf course over and over, literally hundreds of times. As a result my scores have gotten better and better. Recently I have played alongside several younger men who really hadn’t played much golf at all. At some point several of them have asked me something like, “What do I need to do to be able to play as well as you?” (OK, so their sights weren’t set very high!).

I have told them how I got started, not that many years ago. We lived on a 3.5 acre lot with an exceptionally wide front yard. I bought a golf cup and flag and planted them at the bottom of our property. From the top of the yard I could practice 100-110 yard shots at the flag. Nearly every day, year round, I hit 100 or more practice shots there. If I did that 300 days a year for 5 years, that’s over 150,000 practice swings! After awhile I could land the vast majority of my balls within a few feet of the flag!

The old proverb, “Practice make perfect,” is clearly NOT true (at least in the sense in which we usually use the word “perfect”), But it is certainly true that “PRACTICE MAKES PROFICIENT” (or PROGRESS or PRODUCTIVE)! And that’s not just for golf or other sports. That principle applies to nearly every area of life, including the challenges of faithful Christian living. As you PRACTICE a behavior over and over you develop physical, mental, emotional and spiritual “muscle memory.” Let’s get busy practicing the Spiritual Disciplines—Bible study, prayer, fasting, witnessing, meeting genuine needs, etc. Repeat after me: “PRACTICE MAKES PROFICIENT!”