Across the Pastor’s Desk

By the Rev. Andrea Myers, associate pastor at Grace Lutheran Church in Albert Lea

We learn by doing. Practice makes perfect. The conventional wisdom holds true.

Want to play piano? Then you’ll dedicate time daily at the keyboard. Want to improve your golf handicap? Then it’s time to get to the driving range and putting green. Want to become a woodworker? Or sew your own clothes? Or master the tango? You can learn a lot through “how-to” books, but in order to truly master things, we’ll need time actually doing them.

If we sincerely want to make progress or learn something new, then we need more than simply a wish, a hope or good intentions. We need time to practice. We need to make mistakes and learn from those. We need to work alongside someone who can show us what to do and help us to improve. That’s how we get the feel for something new and achieve proficiency. More importantly, when we practice, we discover a comfort and ease that means this skill is now a part of us and our lives.

Recently, youth ministry educator and blogger Tiger McLuen wrote a blog entry called, “Hope is not a strategy.” He describes how families and parents have all sorts of hopes and dreams for their children: hopes that children will be happy, make good decisions and generally that they will turn out well. But, he says, “Hope is not a strategy. God bless you for your good feelings, but it won’t matter in the end if you don’t build some intentionality into your hope.” We need to think strategically and take action if our hopes are to be realized. In other words, we need to practice.

We may hope that every child will know how much God loves them. But hope is not enough. They will need to get hands on and experience a life of trusting God and God’s love for them. That’s how they will develop a level of comfort and ease that this is true. And as their parents, grandparents, pastors, mentors and friends, it’s up to us to help them practice!

So, let’s get intentional about our hopes. Children love stories and will be more than happy to get hands-on by reading from a story Bible with mom and dad. They’ll dive deep into God’s promises through Sunday School and Vacation Bible School. Let’s get intentional about helping them to learn prayer by praying every day — at bedtime, at meals or whenever they feel scared or really happy. When they see their families and friends praying, and join in, they’ll learn that they can talk to God each and every day, no matter what.

And when it comes to worship, “learning by doing” is especially true. Each worshipping community has a way of doing things, a pattern to their time together. Many times parents of young children struggle because those unwritten rules and expectations can feel overwhelming. It might be tempting to stay away from worship until a child is older, when we hope they’ll behave better. But getting intentional means that we can help them learn by doing. We can help them practice, and get the hang of things, taking the time to worship regularly.

Let’s get intentional about our hopes. Let’s practice together. I don’t expect we’ll ever be “perfect” when it comes to faith, but I know for certain that we can grow in our trust in God.