Practice, Practice, Practice!

I couldn’t help but to smile this morning as Fiver and I began our morning walk along the golf course to the neighborhood park and pond.  In the distance I noticed what looked to be a mom and her four children power-walking through the neighborhood.  I had also noticed them yesterday morning and was instantly reminded of my wife Piper and our four children.  Just like our family, two of the children were older and two were noticeably younger...  and the mom was shorter than both of the two older kids.

Piper was a very disciplined individual.  Which was sort of interesting because she came from a fairly undisciplined family.  Both my mom and dad were very disciplined.  I don’t ever remember them “sleeping in” on the weekends... nor on vacation for that matter.  They always arose early and spent the weekend working on various chores, both inside and outside of the house.  And needless to say, my two siblings and I grew up under and learned that same life discipline.

As it turned out, Piper was a lot like my mom.  She was outgoing, loved to laugh, was gracious to everyone and exercised daily.  Besides doing her sets of Canadian Airforce Exercises for years, she and the children walked pretty much every day... in addition to our daily walks either before or after my secular job… depending on the shift I was working at the time.  And that’s why I couldn’t help but to smile at the sweet memory of Piper and our kid’s daily walks, which Piper accounted for as a part of the children’s daily physical education time for their quarterly homeschool records.

That discipline in our daily lives also helped us in our spiritual walk as well.  The writer of the book of Hebrews made an interesting statement when he or she wrote,

“But solid food is for the mature, whose spiritual senses perceive heavenly matters. And they have been adequately trained by what they’ve experienced to emerge with understanding of the difference between what is truly excellent and what is evil and harmful.”  (Hebrews 5:14 - TPT) 

The King James Version talks about those that are mature in the Christian faith by stating that they are those, “…who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.”   While the God’s Word © translation says that the mature are those “Whose minds are trained by practice to know the difference between good and evil.”

Piper didn’t keep her slim and trim figure after having four children by eating whatever she wanted nor with a lack of daily exercise.  She made a point to eat right and stick to her exercises and daily walks.  One of the reasons we loved camping was because of all the beautiful hikes we took throughout the parks and surrounding areas where we had pitched our tent, or in later years, parked our trailer.  That’s not to say that we didn’t enjoy sitting around the camp and resting… but hikes… and many times… strenuous ones, were a part of the regular vacation activity that we enjoyed!

Hebrews 5:14 likens our commitment to the regular disciplines of good health and exercise to that of the mature Christian, who regularly “TRAINS” themselves by the regular and repeated (study of and) “PRACTICE” in the Biblical standards of faith in God and His Word and of the discerning of good and evil in the course of our daily lives.

And again… just like in the practice of nutrition and physical exercise, we also learned that there are times when it is a lot more difficult to walk in this life according to the Biblical standards that are set forth in our Bibles, than to go along with the ways of the world’s thinking.  We personally experienced that when we followed what we believed to be God’s way for us when Piper got sick… and its quite similar to what most Christians today are experiencing in our ever-increasing, modern WOKE leaning society.

But I have to tell you (as I am sure that many of you already know…), that although it isn’t always easy, the results of continual training and practice, practice, and more practice in the life-giving and life-saving principles of our Christian faith are much more rewarding, encouraging and peace rendering in our hearts, than by yielding to the pressures coming from almost every direction we look!

So, what do ya think?  Are you up to joining in with the Christian exercise and practice plan?  It could very well change and enhance the entire course of your life!

Have a great weekend, and as you do… Keep EXPECTING God’s best for your life!