June 9: "Consistency is more important than perfection."
Another rather short one, but longer than the last one. As a note: I will most likely not be posting tomorrow but the day after tomorrow, on the break day, as I need to clean my closet...there's a cockrach wandering around my stuff. And I don't feel like sharing my things with him.
To God Be The Glory!!
Jo Shanks paced behind the row of young bucks, their bows and arrows aimed at the target. At his call, the bucks loosed their arrows, watching as they stuck in the targets. The arrows mostly hit the centre of the targets, except for one arrow. The buck on the far end of the line groaned as he kicked at the ground. Jo looked at the buck's target and saw the arrow in the ring outside the centre. He sighed slightly before ordering a halt for the day. He watched silently as the bucks ran to the targets and gathered up their arrows. As they began to walk away, Jo called out.
"Jaydan. Stay a moment."
The young buck, who had missed the target, turned back, slowly trudging back to him with his eyes lowered. Jo frowned as Jaydan got closer, seeing the wary anticipation in the younger bucks eyes. Jo motioned for the young buck to follow and began walking away from the training grounds towards Larle's flower garden. He walked silently down the path until he came to a bench sitting in the shade of a tree. Motioning for Jaydan to sit, he sat beside him, looking at the flowers.
"Jaydan, why do you think we are having this conversation?"
The young buck looked at him, startled. "So you can tell me that I can't train anymore?" His voice was questioning.
Jo smiled slightly as he realized more clearly what was motivating the young buck. "Who said anything about kicking you off my group?"
Jaydan looked at the ground as he pulled a leaf off the tree and began to tare it into tiny bits. "Lander sir. He said that you were the best and that you would only expect perfection."
Frowning Jo looked at the young buck. "Lander. He's the one who assigns the young bucks and does to their mentors, right?" At Jaydan's nod, Jo smiled slightly. "Well, he may not be far off on the bit about me being the best." He grinned at the young buck, mentally jumping in relief as Jaydan grinned back. Jewel would be pleased at his progress so far; she had been trying to help him with talking people through things but had mostly given up on that. He was apparently better at it than either of them thought. Pushing his thoughts away, he focused on Jaydan again. "Lander was wrong about one thing, though. I do not expect perfection, at least not yet, not while you are still training."
He saw Jaydan's face fall slightly and put a hand on the young buck's shoulder. "I am not perfect yet; I still sometimes miss the centre of the target. I am still training." Jo looked hard into Jaydan's eyes. "Each time I practice, I am training. But I am striving for perfection."
Jaydan slowly nodded his head. "So...you do not expect perfection because we will stop training when we have reached that goal. And we never stop training to be able to reach that goal."
Clapping the younger buck on the shoulder, Jo nodded. "Exactly! It is better to be consistent with our work—consistently growing better in some small way, then being perfect right away. If we are perfect instantly, then there would be no need to train and learn.