Bettering Your Best
"Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after." -- Phil. 3:12
He started in at the bottom. He did his best on every job assigned to him. And always, when the next job was assigned, he said, "I am going to do this a little better than I did the last job." He is now president of the factory.
His first poem went into the editor’s waste basket. "I’ll write the next one better," he said. The editor is glad to get his poems now. And he is still saying, "I’ll write the next one better."
"I can’t do it any better," he said to his boss; "if you want this job done any better, you will have to find somebody else to do it." And the boss found somebody else. And in a score of places since, the boss has had to find somebody who could do the job better. The man who never thinks he can do any better, is always passing on to make room for somebody else.
From best to better. That is the road all successful men travel. In all trades and professions, and in all lines of business, the men who get ahead are the men who continuously strive to better their best.
The same rule applies in moral and spiritual life. "Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after." That was Paul. Never did he feel that he had attained his best in spiritual development, but he was always following after something better. Nor did he ever feel that he had done his best service. "I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are in Rome," he writes in his advanced age, still looking forward to a greater and better ministry.
"I follow after," is a motto that should be adopted by every one who aspires to higher attainments and greater achievements. Never feel that you have reached your best. However good your best may be, there is always the possibility of bettering your best. Let this be your constant aim, and you will be a perpetual surprise to yourself and your friends.
