We Get Good At What We Practice
I needed last weeks practice and apparently so did a ton of you, judging by the amount of replies we got! “Jesus you have my attention” is such a powerful prayer.
Last night one of my kids came down with an earache. Now I’ve had some pretty painful earaches, but the reaction to this didn’t meet the magnitude of physical pain. As we dug deeper, behind the tears, he told us what he was really reacting to. “Dad, am I going to lose my hearing?” followed by a hurricane of tears. “Oh buddy” I said, “is that what you’re worrying about? No I don’t think you’re going to lose your hearing...etc.” (then i said… “well maybe if you don’t eat your vegetables…” J/K...I didn’t say that)
Once he calmed down a bit, I saw the teaching/invitation moment and went for it.
Me: “Ok, I have a question for you. What happens when we practice something over and over? Like, what happens when you practice soccer all the time?”
Kid: “I get better.”
Me: “Yeah, we get good at what we practice! Think about it, remember how you had to re-learn how to kick the ball because you practiced the wrong way for years? And now that you’ve been practicing the right way, you’re crushing it!
This is a lot like life. When we practice worry, we get good at it. When we practice trusting that Jesus is at work even in the pain and hardship, we get good at trust.”
Thankfully, it’s just an ear infection and everything will be fine this time, but the lesson is invaluable and cannot be learned and practiced too much. If you’ve been walking with us for awhile now, you’ve heard me say this often. We can either practice worry or we can practice trust. What will it be today?
10000 MINUTES Practice:
When worry enters the scene:
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Call it out
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Practice Trust*
*Trust that Jesus is at work in your circumstance, knows what He’s doing, and will walk WITH you through it bearing joy, rest, hope, peace, power, wisdom, perspective...