Good, better, best...

In primary school, we were made to recite these lines:

Good,Better,Best
May I never rest
Until my Good is Better
And my Better Best..

It's funny how one never makes sense of nursery rhymes until one is old enough to know their meanings. I never knew the deep meaning of these words until I'd stopped reciting them. They're words to live by.

Everyone is born good, I presume. Everyone's created with some measure of good-and the good in you include your many habits and foibles. Everyone's created different and everyone's created with flaws they have learnt to accept. But is it just enough to accept your weaknesses, your minor character failings as your good? God created us and loves us just the way we are, but I'm sure He wants us to strive to be better! Yorubas will say that you have been born but the burden is on you to go through rebirth! How true! The moment we own that mentality of "that's who i am, that's how I was created and I can't change it..", we sign up for eternal stagnation. You just never get better!

My relationship with people has taught me many things. Whilst it is important to accept others and know them for who they are, warts and all, it is important for the individual himself to (1) identify and acknowledge his flaws and (2) make conscious, purposeful efforts to eliminate or improve on their flaws. What do we get instead? The individuals yield to the flaws and forever fall victim to something that can be overcome.

Can I give practical examples? Have you come across people who often go into fits of rage? Or people who beat their partners? Or people who are known for one character flaw or the other? Or people who are known amongst their friends to have some peculiar but annoying trait?What do they tell you when you have the courage to ask them why they do what they do? "I don't know what came over me"; "It's just something I have to work on(they never do)";"He/She shouldn't be getting me angry";"It's not something I can control";"I can't change, that's me"-the worst of them all!

The fact that people close to you accept you for who you are, does not mean that other people will not be offended by your silly attitudes! Nor does it mean that your Maker does not want you to make better the good He gave you nor make best the better you've achieved!

Well, the truth is that everyone must never be satisfied with his or her present standing, character and otherwise. One must always strive to be better-but for the right reasons. One must never determine to be better so as to gain the approval of people, for example. You will end up killing yourself. One just needs to talk to oneself during those rare lucid moments and identify what needs to be changed in order to have inner peace. One must also, in doing that, be able to enquire of His Maker what needs to be changed and how that could be done.

So, what happens when you've put in some effort and you've become better? Do you relax and say "I've tried! After all, I'm human!". That's the natural tendency. Whatever happened to your better becoming best? I learn lessons everyday and I always strive to put those lessons into practical use. I do not succeed all the time and sometimes, pain or hurt follows. Why pain? I blame myself that I should have done better or tried harder. Although this may come off as some sort of negative thinking, considering the fact that I am but human and can't achieve everything I set my heart to do, this thinking helps me strive harder to do better in similar situations in the future.

So, what should I do? "I try my own best" and leave the rest to my Maker to make perfect..in the end, it will be said that I tried my possible human best. To you, I say that you should know what your best is and strive to reach it all the time...