Good.....Better......Best?

 Growing up, my paternal grandmother had a saying that she would regularly share with me, and my parents tormented me by repeating it over and over again. "Good, better, best. Never let it rest. Until the good is better and the better is best." Now, I do have admit that this saying is much better than the other one that my parents repeated to me, "Practice makes perfect", but both sayings drove me up the wall.

 Yet now, as an adult, I realize how important this saying is. If we are good at doing something, wonderful. How do we get better at doing it? If we get better at doing it, that's great. But how do we get even better at doing it? It's that ongoing bettering that along the way, I lost sight of.

 I stopped challenging myself to be better.

 I started settling for "good enough".

 I allowed circumstances and expectations of others to define me.


 Over the past few months, I've noticed this change in me. It hasn't been a slight change at all. It's a return to this mindset. How do I take the things that I'm good at, and I do make them better? But to not stop at making them better, how can I make them be the best they can be? This has been a challenging process on many, many, many fronts, but I see progress.

 For the next two Sundays, I am challenging myself to play one major piece on the organ for worship each Sunday that I have never played in public before. This is very scary, and I have already put in lots of work. But, I am learning to not make excuses and put in the work. The past 3 Sundays, I have played music on the organ that I challenged myself to do, and put in the work. I didn't receive much in the way of feedback, and that's fine with me. I noticed the difference. I knew how much work I put in to be the best that I could be. Could I have done better? Probably. But, that's the process of taking the good, making it better, and making it be the best it can be. And I thank God for the reminders to be faithful with the talents that He has given me.