"Did you do your best?"

What does it mean for someone to do their best?

A couple of weeks ago I had a conversation with my children about doing their best. I had noticed that during the course of a couple of weeks their were tasks which I had assigned to different individuals that were being left partially done or less than partially done. This particular conversation came about as one of my children was asked to sweep the kitchen floor after a meal. I noticed that after the job was done there were a few chunks of crumbs left on the floor. So I summoned this individual and asked if the floor was swept, to which this person replied, “yes, I did my best.” The thought came through my mind, “did this person do their best or did this person perform what I expected him or her to do.” From my observation, it appeared that this person performed at his or her own expectation. I think, as parents (or leaders), we have a tendency to lower the standard for our children when we expect them to perform at the level of “their best” rather than shooting for a standard of excellence or a standard which we set out for them.

In 1 Thessalonians 4:1, the apostle Paul exhorts the Thessalonian church in the following way, “Finally, then brothers we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to live and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more…” Paul understood grace and yet also knew that as believer’s we are called to a standard of living according to God’s standard, namely, holy living (1 Peter 1:15-16) and not our own. He would not ask the churches if they did their best. His question for the churches was always summed up in this way, “are you living according to the calling of which you’ve been called” (cf Eph 1:4; 4:1).

This is something as parents we must consider when we think about training our children. We don’t want to cross the line of exasperating them by expecting them to do something that they are physically, emotionally, or spiritually incapable of doing. But we should at least expect them to rise up to a level that is beyond their own expectation. They should be challenged to always pursue excellence in whatever they are asked to do. The natural tendency of every person is to live at a level of mediocrity. This is a consequence of our fallen condition. Therefore we should not only fight for pursuing excellence in all that we do; we should also be constantly guiding our family to go beyond what they think they are capable of doing.