Comments on: Theory: Talent can be achieved with practice.

By: Adam Heine

Adam Heine — Tue, 21 Dec 2004 20:41:51 +0000

Oh, and if it isn’t clear already I wanted to make it explicit: what I meant was that the weblog is not really a good place for *me* to debate because I feel like I have an unfair advantage. Anyone else can debate all they want, in fact I encourage it.

And, honestly, I expect myself to go back on that in the future. I don’t think I understand how *not* to debate ;-)

By: Adam Heine

Adam Heine — Tue, 21 Dec 2004 20:41:14 +0000

It’s totally cool that you disagreed, Dad. I think I was just having a bad day ;-) I need disagreement, otherwise I’ll just spout off with no accountability and either nobody will listen to me or people will be widely mislead.

And if what Mom says is true, then I got that from you too. So many of my stupid fights with Cindy are caused by me picking up on one or two things she said without listening to what she meant.

By: The Heine Patriarch

The Heine Patriarch — Tue, 21 Dec 2004 20:40:20 +0000

According to the last two comments I guess it was me. oh well, as usual I guess everyone will be best served if I just keep my thoughts to myself.

By: mommy

mommy — Tue, 21 Dec 2004 20:39:23 +0000

Dad needs to practice what we learned last week at this communication seminar-”What I hear you saying is….” without adding any comments, until the two of you are understanding the same meaning. He zeros in on particular words and what they mean to him (ie “talent”) rather than trying first to ascertain your meaning. (not that he’s the only one who does that) But since you used the debate to clarify your own thinking, than it served a valuable purpose didn’t it? I’m going to go practice (something….anything) now…..

By: Adam Heine

Adam Heine — Tue, 21 Dec 2004 20:38:45 +0000

No, it wasn’t directed at you :) It’s just something I realized when my dad disagreed (only slightly, but still disagreed) with my Theory post. I wanted to debate with him about it and then realized that it wouldn’t really work… I mean, it would work, but it wouldn’t really be fair.

But I may change my mind on that. The weblog *is* more of a soapbox than a debate forum, but depending on the topic and my mood I think I might still end up debating in the future, even though I said I wouldn’t. I just have that kind of personality ;)

So it’s really directed at myself. But in thinking about it in the last couple of days, I think I said it to separate myself from my argument so I wouldn’t get so worked up about the debate itself. I need to learn a better way to deal with that.

Anyway, it’s nothing on you, bro. I actually really appreciate your reply to my other comment on your log. It was thoughtful and not argumentative. Besides, I was the one that started it ;)

By: Rick Brady

Rick Brady — Tue, 21 Dec 2004 20:37:58 +0000

“And I’ve learned that the weblog is not a very good forum for debate (at least not between me and others) - the reason being that it is an uneven platform. Rather it is actually a soapbox, from which one can make comments on what the poster says, but ultimately the speaker on the soapbox has the last and loudest word. I don’t like debating in that kind of artifical strength so I’ll try to avoid it (if I can).”

Is this directed at me? If so, sorry…

:-) Keep postin!

By: The Heine Patriarch

The Heine Patriarch — Tue, 21 Dec 2004 20:35:49 +0000

Anonymous said it right, skill comes from practice, not talent. God has made it very clear that God gives different people different gifts. If He has not given us a particular gift, read “talent”, practice will never get us there. In Moses’ case, God gave Moses the gift or talent of leadership, Moses just didn’t recognize it when first called.

And yes, mommy is practicing piano all the time, well, only when there is a repeat of Trading Spaces on. But she is so blasted cute when she practices who can deny her that? Btw, mom and I are supporting, playing bass and keyboard, to a worship group called “God Song”. We actually think they should call themselves “The Heine Wannabees”

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 21 Dec 2004 20:33:13 +0000

I think skill, not talent, comes with practice.

By: mommy

mommy — Tue, 21 Dec 2004 20:32:30 +0000

I also think that God can use us to minister even when we are using an ability that is thus far only “somewhere on the curve”. There is always someone who is better at it than we are, and we shouldn’t avoid offering our gift because of that. For example, I have never thought of myself as a piano player (15 years of lessons to the contrary), but I got up the nerve to use the keyboard as I led worship, and God used it! I have been motivated to practice (the missing element of the 15 years I suspect) and am improving gradually, but the point is I didn’t wait to offer it to God until I was good. I’ll never be great (not sucking is the current goal) but God _is_ great!

By: The Heine Patriarch

The Heine Patriarch — Tue, 21 Dec 2004 20:31:38 +0000

True, true - the old Moses syndrome - “not me Lord pick someone else”. Until God calls us to something like that we need to do the best we can. I find many Christians bogging down in little things that distracts from the main thing - “To know Christ and make Him known”. In keeping with your thought on when God calls you to do something you think you can’t do, my strength has always come from John 15:5 where Christ says, “Apart from Me you can nothing”. But then Paul, in Phil 4:13 says, “I can do all thing through Christ Who strengthens me.” It is an all or nothing situation, the only difference being Christ. And since Jesus Himself said “with God nothing is impossible” yes all things in life that give God glory are S-curves, and He controls the slope, and not cliffs - nice lesson you learned son. Things that should be cliffs that we can’t climb are those things that take us away from God and don’t give Him the glory.