ZigOn Doing Things Poorly
Several years ago I was teaching a Sunday school class at First Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas, and made the statement "Anything worth doing is worth doing poorly-until you can do it well." The wife of our class pastor, Robert Rohm, was listening and started thinking. They had four beautiful daughters-stair-steps-I mean, to see them together was truly delightful. They were very enthusiastic and personable. Donna Rohm was listening intently and realized she had never made a serious effort to learn how to sew clothing for her little girls. She feared even trying because her mother was a perfectionist as a seamstress. When she finished a garment, you would have thought it had been purchased at Nordstrom or Neiman Marcus-it was perfect. She could look at a style in a window, commit it to memory, and reproduce the style by creating her own pattern. It was remarkable!
Donna determined she was going to give it a try. She laughingly said that her first effort was so bad it was cute and hilarious, but she had at least made a start. Her next effort showed considerable improvement. She learned to measure more carefully, cut more carefully, sew more carefully, and think each step through more thoroughly. Fast-forward two years. It's Sunday morning. Those four little girls show up looking like their dresses had been purchased at the leading department stores-they were gorgeous! Donna was very grateful and proud because, as the wife of a minister, her clothing budget was limited. She had been unable to buy the kind of clothes she wanted her little girls to wear. When I saw them that Sunday, they were as beautifully dressed as any children I have ever seen! Yes. Anything worth doing is worth doing poorly-until you can learn to do it well!
