Practice makes better.

My daughter is playing basketball for the first time in her life this season. She is in 8th grade and never played (outside of gym class) before. I grew up playing basketball but until she decided to play this year, none of my children followed me in that desire to play.
She has come a long way this season from the first day of practice. She didn't know positions, how to shoot, where to stand or what to do... seriously, it was bad at first. But she is now about the best defensive player on the team and has even scored in about three different games!

Today, during Christmas break, I took her to the Y to work with her one on one. She was not as excited as I was. I had her shoot around the paint, five made shots at each mark with left hand on the lowest hash on the left side. We worked on a little one-on-one offense/defense so she could see how to play it. Then we did lay up... that's when things began to fall apart.

She got very frustrated because she couldn't get the rhythm of a lay-up on either side. She held it together pretty well but was not happy.

Our little trip to the gym reminded me of the Christian life. There are some things that I do well. I'm pretty good in some areas of the faith offense, attacking Satan and recruiting for the team. I play my part and hopefully can be counted on to be in the right spot at the right time so my teammates can count on me. In defense there are some areas where I'm okay - defending against the attacks of Satan in some areas is easy.

But, in other areas I miss the basket. I play horrible defense. While I succeed in one area I struggle in another. But just like working with my daughter on the court I need to transfer some of that to the Christian life. The areas I don't do well need more attention and work while keeping up the other areas too.

This new year I'll continue to work on the total game, offense/defense and even sitting on the bench encouraging others. If I practice, work hard and listen to coach I'll continue to improve.