Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Practice What You Preach

When I was first trying to bring God into our house in more concentrated doses (it's a good way to get shot down quickly), I remember telling my dad and brothers some piece of basic Biblical wisdom. My oldest brother's reply was something to the effect of, "You're one to talk. You mess up in that same stuff all the time. Practice what you preach." And he proceeded to ignore the sound advice because I wasn't living it out well enough.

I wonder if subtle undertones like that are what make people like me turn into superChristians. 'Cause I did turn into one. And no one likes a superChristian, 'cause they aren't real people. The thing is, when I give real advice to people, and it's good advice from the Bible, I'm often struggling with it myself. I gradually learned to always say something to the effect of, "And hey man, I'm struggling with this too. But the Bible says we need to..." even if I wasn't actually dealing with it at all. I was determined to be a good witness.

"Practice what you preach." I'm not a fan of the saying. Every good preacher either dealt with or is dealing with the problems they preach on.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

What's good to know is that the phrase "practice what you preach" is where we're at, though. Meaning, no one is perfect, and as we give certain advice, we are very well practicing it, also. We DO practice what we preach..."we" being those of us who aim to not be hypocritical "superChristians." So I commend you on your practicing and also the admittance of struggling while you learn. Life and being a Christian in this world is a struggle. Thank goodness for mercy and forgiveness; and grace above either.