If you know me well, you know that I am not a big fan of practicing. Not necessarily when I directed puppet ministries or Kids in Missions at Smithtown Gospel Tabernacle. I mean personally I hate it. If you ask my Mom, she could probably tell you I rarely practiced my saxophone. I started playing it in 4th grade and played up until about 32 years ago when I started getting more involved in children's ministry. Maybe if I did practice, I could have become a famous Christian Jazz musician. Probably not! One of my magician friends Magic Vinny and I were invited to share at the Smithtown Christian School Chapel about ten years ago. Vinny wanted us to practice the magic tricks. Practice? I said to him "Why, we can do this without practicing?" Vinny proved me wrong and sure enough I realize we needed to work on the timing of each magic trick.
Recently I have been thinking about 2 very famous people who discovered how practice makes perfect. The first is the greatest basketball player who ever lived, Michael Jordan. He is also responsible for breaking my heart and always beating the New York Knicks! Anyway, when Michael Jordan was a freshman in High School, he was cut from the basketball team . He decided instead of pouting he would instead start practicing and getting better. His practice made perfect after he was cut. It didn't weigh him down! He worked very hard to improve himself and he would later win a National Championship in College and 6 NBA Championships with the Chicago Bulls.
The second famous person is none other than Walt Disney. in 1919, Walt Disney was fired from a newspaper staff and was told he was not "creative enough"...seriously? Walt Disney decided he wanted to get better and he worked on so many ideas through the years. In 1955 he opened Disneyland in California and in 1971 he opened Walt Disneyworld. The Disney name is famous all over the world. His practice also made for perfection!
As I begin developing my new ideas for my new ministry as well as my hopes to go into libraries using ventriloquism and magic, I realize that the only way I will get better is if I practice. I have set time aside to do just that to see where I can improve. Many athletes, performers, dancers, magicians, singers and musicians will always tell you that they want to work on their weaknesses so that they can improve and get better. The only way we can get better is if we......PRACTICE!
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