PRACTICE MAKES BETTER
“I can’t do it, Grandma! No matter how much I practice I can’t get it right. I keep playing the wrong notes.” Both of my grandchildren have said this to me at various times while struggling to learn a new piano piece. At times, they want to give up.
To help them, I teach them different methods of practice. “Practice each hand separately,” I tell them. “Break down the music by phrase or measure.” “You have to identify each mistake, correct it, and play it over and over again correctly before adding it back into the piece.” They must learn that unless they break down the piece, working on it note by note, if necessary, their playing won’t improve.
After perfecting a piece, they’ll still make mistakes. This frustrates them, but they have to learn to continue on, even when they’ve made a mistake. It’s an equally important lesson for them to learn as they begin to share their music with others.
Like Music, Life Requires Practice
All too often we must learn the same lessons as we walk the Christian life. Living as a Christian takes a lot of practice too. We continually have to break down our lives to the foundation—Jesus Christ. Without Him as our foundation the music of our lives will just be a bunch of noise.
We are the piano pieces, the masterpieces, of God. The wrong notes of sin will be played no matter how hard we practice, but they’ll be fewer and farther between. When we sin, we have the privilege of asking God for His forgiveness, correcting our mistakes, forgiving ourselves, and getting back to practicing the Christian life. The dissonance of our sin will not destroy the overall melody unless we give up and let it.
Our lives play the melody of the Master, however imperfectly. Will the music we play tell His story, bringing others to Him, or will we give into playing wrong notes and make people cover their ears, preventing them from hearing the beautiful melody of the Lord? If we say it’s too hard and give up, God’s song will be obscured by all of our mistakes. We need to keep on trying, making the corrections along the way. Practice doesn’t “make perfect.” Practice makes better. It’s the lesson we need to learn as we strive to play the song of the Lord. He doesn’t expect perfect, He just expects better.
Used with permission from Linda Condolora. To read more of Linda’s writing visit https://blog.lindacondolora.com/.
