Does Practice Make Perfect?

If your efforts are not bringing the desired results in your spiritual life, could you be “practicing” incorrectly?

By Don Wolfe

How many times have you heard the phrase, “Practice makes perfect”? If you were a typical child, it is quite possible you first heard it from a teacher; and very likely, a music teacher. I can’t remember the first time I heard it, but I do remember the music teacher who said it to me: Miss Preen. She came to our house to give me piano lessons when I was in the first grade. She tried to encourage me to practice by saying, “Practice makes perfect.” I must say that, as a first grader, playing the piano perfectly was not my highest priority. As you might expect, we didn’t have much homework at that grade level, and if the weather was nice, the kids in my neighborhood would play outside after school. That seemed like the place to be. However, it felt like I was always indoors at the piano, practicing.

Miss Preen told me that I had some ability, but that it could only be developed if I practiced. I thought if I could play the piece pretty well after a couple of run-throughs, that should be good enough. As a ploy to get me to spend more time at the piano, she assigned a certain number of times (ten, I believe) for me to play each piece every day. Well, what that helped me accomplish was to learn to play very fast.

The value of correct practice

Through my many years as a music teacher, and yes, even a piano teacher, I have reflected on these supposedly sage words of wisdom. I have had a number of students who practiced diligently but still had considerable difficulties. Seemingly, wrong notes that had been a part of their early attempts to play a particular piece of music during their lesson would not go away, even after weeks of practice. It certainly wasn’t a lack of desire on the students’ part. They were simply practicing incorrectly. In such cases, putting the time in at the piano was doing nothing more than reinforcing wrong notes. It became much more difficult to “unlearn” the mistakes and play the music correctly. I have since amended the phrase in question to: “Correct practice makes perfect.”

God’s Word admonishes Christians to “let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing” (James 1:4). It is so easy to read a passage such as this and say to ourselves, after we have been confronted with an extremely difficult or stressful situation, “I wish I could have more patience!” If all your wishing, as sincere as it may be, has not brought the desired results, could it be that you have been “practicing” incorrectly?

Learning patience

Beginning piano students do not start with a Chopin Etude when they are learning the basic fundamentals of pianistic technique. It could very well be that the Lord, our Master Teacher, has given us many opportunities to practice patience. Unfortunately, sometimes we are in too big of a hurry to handle these “little” situations the way that would be most pleasing to the Lord. If that is our mode of practice, no amount of it will bring perfection. In Psalm 101:2 we read, “I will behave myself wisely in a perfect way. O when wilt thou come unto me? I will walk within my house with a perfect heart.” If we will get back to the basics, and practice walking in our own houses “with a perfect heart,” we will see the results in our lives that the Lord has commanded of us. We will also be much better prepared for the “big” tests, perhaps in more hostile environments, when they come.

We read in the Sermon on the Mount, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). If you have tried hard but still feel frustrated with the results, why not stand back and check out your method of practice. If we can avoid making the mistakes in the first place, by carefully following the directions, we can develop a pattern which will please God.

If it is patience we want, the Bible tells us, in James 1:3, “Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience” (James 1:3). Yes, if we will practice, diligently and correctly, “Practice will make perfect.”

Don Wolfe served as music director of the Apostolic Faith Church in Portland, Oregon, for forty-four years before his retirement.