There is an old adage in the printing business that says ”The quality of your proofreading will be appreciated long after your speed has been forgotten.”

Many a parent has tried to instill in their children the principle that ”a task worth doing, is worth doing right.” In spite of this, many people go through life doing many things poorly and never really doing anything to the best of their ability.

Paul told the Philippians, ”This one thing I do.” Solomon told us that ”whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might.”

If we are proofreading a page of type, then we should proofread it to the very best of our ability. There never was a typesetter who could set type without making a mistake. Solomon said, ”there is no man that sinneth not.” The purpose of a proofreader is to find the mistakes before going to press so that the finished product will be correct. The sins we commit need to be recognized and forgiveness sought before the judge of all the earth calls us to give an account of our stewardship. Are we in such a hurry that we pay no attention to details? This is a common mistake of those who are trying to cover up rather than correct their errors. Do we think that by our much hurrying and scurrying around we may be able to ignore the fact that we have corrections that need to be made? Do we think they will go unnoticed?

We need to remember r that we cannot skim over a page of type because the eye will play tricks on us when we hurry and it sees what it wants to see. The mistakes we miss will be there for all time. By slowing down and taking time to read carefully, we will pick up the difference between immortality and immorality. In life, we also need to pay attention to the little details of our lives because haste can often make waste and a job poorly done might just as well not have been started at all.

The person who lies a little because he feels there’s no time to stop and explain the whole truth, the one who cheats just a little bit because it was the fastest and easiest way to get the job done, the one who takes something without paying for it because the line was too long (and besides, they make plenty of money off of us anyway) are all examples of justifying sin in our own minds.

Let us stop and take stock of our lives to make sure that we are not hurrying so fast that we are failing to do what is right. Do we have the good sense to do what ought tn be done when it ought to be done whether we want to do it then or not? God does not ask us to do more than we can do, but He does ask us to do all that we can to the best of our ability.

Our life is being proofread By one who knows our downsitting and our uprising, who understands our thoughts afar off, and ”there is not a word in our tongue, but lo. the Lord knoweth it altogether.” He is not in such a hurry as to overlook our little indiscretions and we must all stand before the judgement seat of Christ; that everyone may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.”

Let us heed the old adage of the printing business that ”the quality of our proofreading will b appreciated long after our speed has been forgotten” and apply it to our lives that it may help us to remember that the quality of what we do for the Lord Jesus Christ will be remembered long after our speed has been forgotten.