My new current Tuesday working day schedule has made my weeks go great. I love having the ends of my weeks free to do baking and at home projects. But, it has caused my writing to suffer. Mondays are so busy with start of the week stuff that it is hard to settle down and write. And then I feel the necessity to whip my house into shape on Wednesdays. When I finally sit down to write I either have very few thoughts, or only deep thoughts that I have little energy (and not enough time) to plumb.
So, I have been writing mostly shallow(isn) posts, or not writing at all. But, I have read a lot of books the past few weeks...
And I've taken a few naps too.
One of the deep ideas that has been circling around my mind lately is the idea of training. Training is a necessity. It is not a luxury.
Consider how many times we've been offended by someone's actions. We assign all kinds of nefarious motives. We overthink the issue. But, quite often it all boils down to the fact that the person simply didn't know better.
Our kids didn't know how to properly vacuum the stairs, because we've never showed them. They aren't rebellious and/or lazy.
The person at church isn't always balking against tradition. Maybe they've never been taught the tradition or the reason behind it.
The child is abrupt (and rather rude) on the phone, because they have never been taught telephone etiquette.
It reminds me that we can't expect a certain behavior or level of behavior from someone if we've never laid out our expectations. Or if they've never received the proper training.
It is rather ridiculous. And frustrating. For both them and us.
Also, ironically enough, very few truths are as self-evident as we'd like to imagine.
Ironically enough, it is almost always obvious in a race (and in life) who has and hasn't been training.
Training is the crucial foundation for any activity or behavior.
Olympic athletes don't jump into their event just.like.that. There is years and years of discipline and training behind them. Years of doing things wrong, and learning to do them the proper way. Years of time, one-on-one coaching, blood, sweat and tears. Years of dedication-theirs, their parents, their coach.
Michael Phelps' coach didn't say to him one morning, "okay, Michael, this is how you swim. Now hop to it. Oh look, you qualified for the Olympics."
Nope. Didn't happen that way.
It's line upon line. Precept upon precept. Here a little, there a little.
I need to remind myself of this in so many areas. Parenting. Schooling. Wife-ing. Business. Relationships. Church.
Training is teaching the right and wrong way to do something. Over and over again. It is forgiveness and grace. It is patience and endurance. It is realizing that mistakes are inevitable, and it is try-try-trying again.
Training takes time. It can be terribly annoying. Why aren't they getting it???
Training needs to be specific. Training is generally not the time to leave things to imagination. This is exactly how you hang a shirt. These 4 things are the only 4 things that belong under your bed. This is the way you pull a weed-you grab it_______. This is the purpose of this church service. This is how we do things. This is so and so's job. This is your job.
Training forces us to delineate what our expectations are. Training forces us to face up to what is really important or rather irrelevant.
Training requires persistence. It requires both the trainer and trainee to not give up. Training is based on that encouraging concept...hope springs anew. People and things can change for the better. Because....
Training inevitably (eventually) pays off. In parenting. In running. In relationships. At church.
It's training time. Is there an area of your life that you could use some training? Is there someone in your life that you are supposed to be training?
