Shoot at the stars.....or is it shoot for the stars....LOL
In the warmth of summer I remembered a New Year's Eve morning that I went outside to clean my walkway. It's only 8 ft long and it was blowing snow, but I am not a fan of allowing the snow to accumulate and it didn't support my "open door" policy of having a hospitable home. It was still dark (probably 4 or 5 am in the morning) and as I swept the blown snow, my neighbour stepped outside for a smoke. He asked me what I was doing and I said "cleaning the walk". He said it's only going to pile up in a few hours and my response that day set the tone for the rest of my life. I said "Practice makes perfect!" It then clicked to me and I was so overwhelmed by my joy and excitement that I was in tears as I continued to sweep and repeat my new mantra.
You see, I have made a "cross of the line" going on 7 years this December when I chose to be baptized and live the life of a disciple of Jesus. It is my greatest moment and choice in life and all other wonderful things and blessings have since followed. Until then I had no set goal for my life and many times I wished I could just waste away as I was so very tired of the constant fight against everything in my life. I have been through quite a bit (constant racism and discrimination, a difficult childhood with even more difficult siblings and relatives, and a lot of rejection) and I am still encouraged to know that there are so many peoples' lives I have touched as they remember how happy and helpful I was. So after making my life long commitment to living life to the full, and following in the example that Jesus has set, I realized that night that Jesus strove for perfection. And in his example (that I have chosen to live by) I am to do the same. Now there are constant reminders that I will never be perfect in the Bible, but the point is I am to strive for it all the same. So I get the relief of knowing that I am not perfect or expected to be, but I AM expected to aim for it. I am to "practice" it for the rest of my life and in the PRACTICE of perfection, I will be made perfect. That was what came to me that night. So I have no excuse for not trying to succeed in all I do, knowing that not only in the practice of doing what is good, right, healthy, positive, and forward-focused it becomes easier, but it IS easier when I chose to practice towards "perfection", because in making the choice, I am made stronger.
"Any time you are tempted by immoral, unhealthy, unwise behavior, you have a strengthening choice or a weakening choice.
It's about choosing the hard right over the easy wrong.
The beauty of it is that exactly when choosing the hard right is toughest, that is exactly when your power grows.
Instead of looking at such options as a temptation to overcome, I want you to right now begin looking at those moments as blessed opportunities.
Think - if you make that strengthening decision just once, the pain of it will be only very brief, but the resulting strengthening will last you for years.
Say to yourself, "As I choose the strengthening behavior now, I am making myself more powerful, and my life easier, from this moment forward".
(The above excerpt was taken from the "Virtuosity Book" of a program called simple.ology 101: The Simple Science of Getting What You Want)
I think the above shares perfectly........about making choices, making your life easier, and ultimately being strengthened just by the ACT of practicing these habits.
So we may not be perfect, but we aren't expected to be. Just by practicing (participating in the act of) the behaviors of "perfection", we live a worthy life that will bring us happiness simply through making those strengthening and powerful choices and help us to live the life we want to be living.
"Do as I know. Know as I do."
You see, I have made a "cross of the line" going on 7 years this December when I chose to be baptized and live the life of a disciple of Jesus. It is my greatest moment and choice in life and all other wonderful things and blessings have since followed. Until then I had no set goal for my life and many times I wished I could just waste away as I was so very tired of the constant fight against everything in my life. I have been through quite a bit (constant racism and discrimination, a difficult childhood with even more difficult siblings and relatives, and a lot of rejection) and I am still encouraged to know that there are so many peoples' lives I have touched as they remember how happy and helpful I was. So after making my life long commitment to living life to the full, and following in the example that Jesus has set, I realized that night that Jesus strove for perfection. And in his example (that I have chosen to live by) I am to do the same. Now there are constant reminders that I will never be perfect in the Bible, but the point is I am to strive for it all the same. So I get the relief of knowing that I am not perfect or expected to be, but I AM expected to aim for it. I am to "practice" it for the rest of my life and in the PRACTICE of perfection, I will be made perfect. That was what came to me that night. So I have no excuse for not trying to succeed in all I do, knowing that not only in the practice of doing what is good, right, healthy, positive, and forward-focused it becomes easier, but it IS easier when I chose to practice towards "perfection", because in making the choice, I am made stronger.
"Any time you are tempted by immoral, unhealthy, unwise behavior, you have a strengthening choice or a weakening choice.
It's about choosing the hard right over the easy wrong.
The beauty of it is that exactly when choosing the hard right is toughest, that is exactly when your power grows.
Instead of looking at such options as a temptation to overcome, I want you to right now begin looking at those moments as blessed opportunities.
Think - if you make that strengthening decision just once, the pain of it will be only very brief, but the resulting strengthening will last you for years.
Say to yourself, "As I choose the strengthening behavior now, I am making myself more powerful, and my life easier, from this moment forward".
(The above excerpt was taken from the "Virtuosity Book" of a program called simple.ology 101: The Simple Science of Getting What You Want)
I think the above shares perfectly........about making choices, making your life easier, and ultimately being strengthened just by the ACT of practicing these habits.
So we may not be perfect, but we aren't expected to be. Just by practicing (participating in the act of) the behaviors of "perfection", we live a worthy life that will bring us happiness simply through making those strengthening and powerful choices and help us to live the life we want to be living.
"Do as I know. Know as I do."
Tags: choices, perfection, practice
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