Practice Makes Perfect

I'm home. Back from Heaven. Back from the Raddison. Back to my normal house with a regular mattress (and I don't even get a bed to myself....there's some girl there who says she's my "wife") , a regular breakfast (actually no breakfast - by choice), no fitness center, no big bucket of snacks, no giant TV, and no perfect shower. I'm home. And I love it. :) ............It was so nice to get back home to Susan and Carter. I really missed them. Yes, it was nice to have a taste of luxury for a few days, but it wouldn't be special if I had it all the time. I'll take my home over anywhere else. Every time!

So you may notice over there that I didn't run at all last week. I haven't run in almost 2 weeks. My heel is just too sore. It's healing....I think.....but very slowly. I have been doing the stationary bike and mainly the Elliptical machine instead. I'm actually enjoying those. But I do want to get back to running....eventually.....when I have no heel pain. I've also been playing tennis some lately. Yep....tennis! Susan had some friends encourage her to begin playing and so we've kind of taken it up as a family. I'm loving that too. Susan and I used to play a little when we first got married but we haven't played since....10 years ago. Needless to say, we're a little rusty but it's still fun and quite a workout.

Speaking of workouts, I am about to begin my 2nd season as head coach of the Cross Country team at the school where I teach. I'm very excited. I have 28 boys and 16 girls signed up as of today. TSSAA rules prohibit me from coaching them until the end of July. I sent them a letter advising them what to do and encouraged them to train in groups this summer if possible. I also put my seniors (all 3 of them) in charge of leading the practices and encouraging them to participate. My seniors have done a great job. They've created a Facebook group and the team is communicating pretty well. However, after talking to one of my seniors, I have been told that it has been pretty difficult to get a lot of the team to respond and practice with the group. Only a faithful few have been there every day. Most have excuses, trips, camps, work, or TV watchin' to do. This is not a new problem. Getting these kids motivated to run is like getting a cat in a bathtub. Once we start the season and the official workouts begin, then they run. They have to. They're being watched. But it's pretty easy to tell who has been running during the summer and who hasn't. Some of them just don't get it that practice indeed does make perfect. They also don't understand that you can't get results, especially good results if you don't put the practice time in. That goes for anything in life, even our spiritual life.

While I didn't invent the saying "practice makes perfect," it's not entirely true. We can never be perfect at anything. Nobody is perfect. We can always get better whether it's a physical activity or sport, a mental challenge or excercise, or even in our spiritual walk. We'll never be perfect.....on this Earth that is. Practice DOES make perfect when we leave this life. Heaven is perfect. Last night at church, we had a singing and I was so excited to find out that most of the songs seemed to be about Heaven. I know worship isn't for me, but I do love singing songs about Heaven. I get so excited thinking about it and I can't wait to go (as I've mentioned many times). It's so wonderful to think about a perfect place with no worries, sadness, troubles, sin, or temptation. But here's the thing....it takes practice too. Some people want Heaven without the practice it takes, but it doesn't work like that. God didn't design it like that. We have to practice to get the perfection of Heaven. We have to follow God. We have to give our lives to Him. We have to keep our relationship wtih Him strong. We have to abstain from sin or anything that keeps us away from God. We have to practice those things throughout our lives if we want the "perfect." I want it. How about you?

Luckily, I have enough runners that will put in the work. They'll get it together and we'll have a good season. But I wish all my runners would put in the practice necessary so they could get as close to perfect this season as possible. But more than that.....if they don't run one minute this summer....my prayer is that they practice for Heaven every day. And they'll know that I want that from them.

So I encourage you to put in the practice. And please pray and encourage me to do the same.

See you in Perfect.

I love Griffin and I love God.

Keep runnin'. The PRIZE awaits. (Php. 3:14)

-Albert