Trying Harder or Training Wiser

"I'm going to try harder to be a better parent and not get so angry and impatient with my kids." "I'm going to try harder to treat my spouse with more respect." "I'm going to try harder to serve God." "I'm going to try harder not to sin." "I'm going to try harder to get in better shape." "I'm going to try harder to..."

How many times have you made that statement, with the best intentions, to only be disappointed so quickly with yourself once again? Trying harder is a common mantra of those wanting to improve who they are, but in and of itself one of the quickest ways to just giving up. We can only handle so much failure by our own will before we no longer have the will. We lose the courage to try again.

Many years ago I completed a marathon, 26.2 miles. Why you may ask! Well, that is another blog. But one thing for certain, if I had woke up that morning in October, 1994, without ever training for the run and decided, "You know, there's a marathon today. I think I will go try to run it..."; you know what the results would have been. Without the many months of proper training, both physically and mentally, I would have quit before crossing the finish line. But because I followed a training regimen I was able to "try hard" and succeed.

Do you just try harder to be who God has created you to be, or do you train wisely for it? Let's explore what it means to train for righteousness in future blogs. What type of "spiritual training" do you do? What has enabled you to run the race that leads to heaven? How do we follow Paul's writing in 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 to not run aimlessly that will disqualify us from the prize, but to run in such a way to get a crown that will last forever?
Let's learn together how to have the courage to walk (and run) with God!