May 2026

TRAINING FOR GODLINESS

“Physical training is good, but training for godliness is much better,
promising benefits in this life and in the life to come.”
(1 Timothy 4:8 NLT)

The USA is hosting the 2028 Olympic games in Los Angeles again! That’s exciting! A sport that
the USA dominated before was Skeet Shooting. Representing the USA for six consecutive games
(1996 Atlanta, 2000 Sydney, 2004 Athens, 2008 Beijing and 2012 London, 2016 Rio de Janeiro)
in the sport of Skeet Shooting was Olympic and World record holder, Kim Rhode.
If qualifying and winning 6 consecutive Olympic games isn’t impressive enough, try being the
first U.S. Olympian competing in an individual sport and winning six medals in six consecutive
Olympic Games! Add that to 14 National Championship gold medals and 35 medals in
international competitions including those 6 Olympic medals! She holds the Olympic record and
is tied for the world record in skeet shooting. She’s truly an amazingly great athlete!

Was it luck or is this skill?

Ms. Rhode shoots around 1,000 rounds every day of the week… year-round! To save you the
math, that’s 3,000,000+ practice shots! That’s around 600,000 training rounds per Olympic
medal! When you step back and look at those numbers, the medals, accomplishments and
records are really not that surprising. Of course, it’s skill! – pure, focused, trained skill!

How much time, effort and practice have you put into your spiritual disciplines? Are the
results of your spiritual investments evident in the kind of growth and transformation you are
experiencing? Can your spiritual accomplishments (or lack thereof!) be explained
by luck or by training?

Time to exercise those spiritual muscles and continue your “Training for Godliness”!

Pastor Vino Atienza