Golf Lessons

I started playing golf when I was still in high school and was fortunate enough that I had a boss at my restaurant summer job who paid for me to take lessons. He loved golf but worked seven days a week during the season when this terrific teacher was available. He paid for me to take lessons and then come to work and show him what I had learned. It worked for me, but I'm not sure about him. I became a pretty good golfer at that time. The golf lessons of which I speak today are not about becoming a pretty good golfer. Many people look at golf as a stupid game. You walk around a field (if your lucky enough to avoid the woods) and chase a white ball to hit again until it goes in a cup in the ground. You pay good money to do this and some people can't understand why. Well it's outdoors and the outdoors is better most of the time than indoors as far as I'm concerned. You look at God's creation and you see the good the bad and the ugly. Green plush grass with intricate hole shapes and designs. The greens can be pretty and the contours interesting, mixed with sand traps that can be pretty and pretty nasty, and always a few bugs to fly around your head and bite from time to time. Add heat and cold and wind and your day changes with the air around you. You must adapt to play golf. The same thing will not work every day. Some people say golf is the most frustrating of games and it can be. What I do great today can be my greatest weakness tomorrow and I won't know why. I think that is the greatest golf lesson. Perfection is not possible. I've learned to role with the punches and take each day as it comes. I always try to do my best but I always have ups and downs and inconsistencies. I can be frustrated if I want or I can take it as it is while always striving to do my best. At the same time I always want to be content to be playing the game even when I am doing poorly.

For me this was what was so applicable to life. I know what God expects of me and believe me I try to live up to those expectations. I used to get so mad at myself when I would fall short. Failures, especially with Marsha, hurt me and I know hurt her, yet from time to time I would fall short and do the very things I had tried so hard to improve and eliminate from my behavior. I would get so frustrated with myself but most often I was not nice to her even when I knew I had failed again. I'm better in any number of ways now. I have improved many weaknesses through trial and error, but also I accept that failure could happen and when it does I just move on. I don't get defensive like I did when I thought I should be perfect. I'm not as frustrated. I just try again and continue on. I can admit when I've dome something poorly and even laugh about it. All these things I started learning on a golf course trying to get a little white ball in a small hole while walking around in God's creation getting exercise. People say I must be getting really good at golf as I play quite a bit these days, but I'm not getting much better. I am getting better at life though and that's more important to everyone.