Practice makes Permanent

I have three amazing kids, each one unique in character, looks and talents. *We have so much to be grateful for*

My youngest, unlike his siblings, finds public speaking very challenging. He is a shy boy and speaking in front of his classmates is something that does not come naturally for him.

But he has learnt that practicing helps. A. LOT.

Last week he had to say a speech in his second language and he practiced very hard for it... and then he had the date wrong.

Poor thing.

He had to say his speech off the top of his head. And true to form, all that practice had made it permanent!

He nailed it too. Ten out of ten!

My son got a perfect score for his speech. But did all his practice really make for perfect?  Perfection as a concept is so subjective that it is hard to define: perhaps the teacher was just being kind because he had his date wrong, or perhaps he made less mistakes than with his previous speeches...

Perhaps it was absolutely perfect, but if my child believes that through practice, it is going to be perfect every time, then he might either become disheartened when perfection is not attained and give up or he might become a workaholic, believing that with just a little more effort he will achieve it.

Yet, far more important than a perfect speech or a perfect score is the permanence of confidence being built in his life.

Because then, one day, when he needs to speak unprepared, without practice, he can do it well and without hesitation.

**********************

Likewise, I am far from perfect and will never be. But as I practice devotion to Jesus in a relationally real way, His nature becomes more and more permanent in me.

Practice does not make perfect.

Practice makes permanent.

Permanent: timeless, abiding, endless, unfailing, steadfast, unbroken, enduring, eternal. A capacity that continues.

**********************

**The first time I heard of this tweaked version was from my youth pastor and it stuck. I must've  been 17 years old.

And Jesus alone is the perfecter of our faith.

...and let us run with endurance (practice making permanent) the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. Heb 12:1-2

2 Co 12:9  But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.