“Practice doesn’t make perfect,” a music teacher once said. “Practice makes permanent.”

If practice isn’t careful and meaningful, it can be worse than a waste of time.

According to Dr. K. Anders Ericsson, internationally recognized for his research in the psychology of performance, it takes 10,000 hours of deliberate practice to attain an expert level in any field.

Deliberate practice is strategic. It isn’t simply working through a certain number of hours. It’s analyzing those areas that need help, and then working through them.

My husband and I had a friend in college who had “practice” written all over him. Though he was a music major, he was built like an athlete. Our friend never went anywhere but the music building, never did anything but practice. That daily toting of his heavy bassoon, those hours of struggle to perfectly string notes together, literally turned him into a strong player.

No one but Jesus attains perfection in their lifetime. But if loving God is something we’ve chosen to strive for, then we need deliberate practice.

We need moments set aside to deliberately love Him, to love who and what He’s made. We need a careful analysis of when and why we fall short so our practice will bring us closer to perfection.