“How I wish my ways were strong!” the psalmist says, “when it comes to keeping your ways.”

Shame can haunt us when we consider the ways we’ve failed ourselves, others, and God. But the psalmist doesn’t stay stuck there. The song continues:

“I will give thanks to you with a heart that does right, with a heart that keeps learning.”

When you get down on yourself, can you remember you’re a work in progress? That you’re still discovering how to be? That when you know better, you do better?

Just like a team gets stronger by training, so we get steadier in spirit by practice — waking up for church, giving our time and money, cheering each other on in courage, showing up in prayer, memorizing a Bible verse, or befriending the lonely.

And whenever you need help, call out to your coach as the psalmist did: “Please don’t leave me all alone!”

By Cari Pattison from D365