There’s not many things that smell worse than stinky shoes. I’m sure you’ve come across a pair that has that odor with the extra kick. Maybe its your brother’s basketball shoes. You know the ones that make you gag a little when you pick them up? It seems like shoes can get stinky pretty easily. Its just the nature of them. You put them on, run around in them for a few days, and they start to accumulate that funky stinky feet odor. But many times, because you wear the shoes all the time, you don’t notice the odor. Its easy to become accustomed to the foot odor and not realize…your feet stink. You know that’s a lot like personal growth. Its easy to become so accustomed to your daily activities, routines and things that we can forget to grow personally. Unless we try to do something beyond what we’ve already mastered, we won’t grow. That principle can apply to lots of areas in our lives. If we don’t push ourselves to grow, we can easily become stinky and not realize it. The Bible says it like this:

All athletes are disciplined in their training. They do it to win a prize that will fade away, but we do it for an eternal prize- 1 Cor 9:25 (NLT)

To win, you’ve got to be disciplined in training. You’ve got to push yourself beyond where you’re comfortable in natural things and in spiritual things. So decide today that you’re not going to become stinky like your shoes sometimes get. Decide to keep pushing yourself forward in your relationship with God and in your habits and routines. The secret to your failure or your success is found in your daily routines.