Practice makes perfect

I know many of you wonder if I've always been fat. Well actually know, I used to be really skinny. So skinny in fact, that I didn't weigh enough to play little league football. You had to weigh at least 55 pounds and I weighed in at a whopping 50. Until one year my dad had the idea to fill my pockets with fishing weights and a hunk of solid brass. I could barely keep my pants up, but when I stepped on the scale it leveled out at exactly 55 pounds. The lady nurse said, "Wow, you barely made it!” I didn’t care if I barely made it or blew the doors of trying, the point was I made it!

I left that room and went directly outside for my very first practice. I was ecstatic! I didn't think about the fat that everybody there out weighed me by 1200 pounds, or for the fact that they all had two years of experience, all I knew was that I was finally going to get to play ball!
I John 3:7 says, "He that practices righteousness, is righteous just as Christ.” See we don't have to be perfect. In fact it doesn't even matter when you screw up. Really I'm serious. Think about it for a second, how many people while practicing for anything, get in trouble when they screw up? None. When i tripped on a hurdle in track practice my coach never yelled at me. I wasn't kicked off the team. My coach would just say, "Come on Wendel, you can do it! Get the knees up and go for it!"
Self-criticism and self-condemnation is SO debilitating. It's time to stop looking at what you think is wrong with you and what you think is lacking in your life and realize that you are only practicing. So screw up! Make mistakes! Do it wrong! But do it nonetheless. See God is way more gracious on those who get off the bench and do it wrong or right; as opposed to those who only sit on the bench. This is your day! Don't focus on you faults or on how many times you’ve screwed up. Focus on the goodness of God and the calling that is on your life. Focus on how many hurting people there are around you and what you can do about helping them.
We will never be perfect on this earth. But one thing is for sure, we will become more perfect the more we practice.