Are You Ready For Some Football?

I’ve always been a huge non-fan of sports, especially football. It makes no sense to me, and I’ve never even wanted it to. (And don't get me started on "student athletes" in our college systems.) My husband tells everyone that I root for the clock. And how long are those football minutes anyway?

But gradually over the last two months, football is starting to get to me. Does it have something to do with this guy?

He’s seven (and a half!) and lives for playing tackle football. Saturday morning was his first game at 9:00 am. He was quite giddy when he went to bed the night before, just squealing with delight that seven year old boys can still do.

He was so excited, he was out of bed by 4:30 am. Fortunately he went to Rachael’s room first, but landed in our room just before 5:00 am. Mike finally asked him at 5:30 if he would like to go downstairs and watch some football. A loud yes (as in finally, something) and he jumped out of our bed and went downstairs with dad for the next two hours before he had to leave.

I’ve never seen this kid have so much energy. He played the entire game. His team, the Saints, lost by mere inches really, 13-7. Even in defeat, you couldn’t stop the smile! He is already looking forward to next Saturday.

On the way home he matter of factly announced that when he is grown, he will play in the Super Bowl. And I know at least one fan who will do everything she can to help him get there.

I’m Proud of My Daughter

Turning 21 is a milestone! The parents and the child have all survived (albeit sometimes barely) the teen saga, and life starts to make a little more sense….a little more. Direction may or may not be there, but the foundations of who you are and who you will be have been laid. This is how parents view this milestone.

Taking those foundations for granted, though, could be a mistake. Our oldest daughter, who is also our oldest child, turned 21 this week. We are planning a nice family dinner to celebrate whenever it works it her schedule.

What I didn’t realize, though, until now, is how her peers view this milestone. My daughter mentioned to me about how many of her friends have asked her if she planned to get drunk to celebrate. In their view, she is now of legal age to do this, so it is a rite of passage. (And as is the case of some of them, she is old enough to buy alcohol to pass along to them, her underage friends.) She then proceeded to tell me how stupid she thought that was.

She came home confused last night by the gift she received from two of her Christian friends….a Tic-Tac-Toe drinking game set that involves shot glasses with X’s and O’s. I have to admit I was confused too, and I want to point out that she arrived home early and sober.

Had I known this was the prevailing attitude towards turning 21, I would have given her warning. Had I known, I could have been praying specifically for her protection and the protection of her friends through this time. But she did great even without my warning. And although extra prayers never hurt, she did great by praying for strength and wisdom on her own.

She thinks because she has a very difficult time in her college classes that she’s not smart. I think she is one of the wisest 21 year olds I know to recognize the folly of poor choices at any age.

I am proud of my daughter.

LOVED - My She Speaks Experience

I sat and stared at the laminated Scripture card I held in my hand. That verse in no way relates to the fear and doubt I had written on my response card that was now lying beneath the wooden cross where I had made the trade: response card with my doubts written on it traded for laminated card that had reassuring Scripture that God would use to speak to me about those doubts and fears.

Being a woman who friends describe with words like “steady” and “calm,” I’m not overly emotional and I was never a big fan of the weeping sessions that take place at women’s events. Mostly I just avoided going to the conferences and retreats in the first place. But She Speaks seemed different. I was confident God had something there for me to learn. I should not have been surprised that I would end up knowing Him better, and learning how well He knows me.

So, the laminated Scripture card…. As I had written my doubts on the response card, I had written a secondary fear, maybe even tertiary. I could not bring myself to write my primary doubt, as the entire weekend conference had brought message after message addressing that doubt. Pride prevented me from writing that doubt down, since with all the teaching I’d heard, that doubt should have been decimated, annihilated, demolished, destroyed, killed, massacred, butchered, slaughtered, and whatever other forceful synonymous verbs there are in the thesaurus. The teaching was that good!


But, the laminated Scripture card….I looked at the verse and read it again. “You are precious and honored in my sight, and I love you.” (Isaiah 43.4a) The tears fell fast and furious. Didn’t see that coming! I realized that God was not speaking to my secondary fear that I had written on the card, but to the fear that always crept to the top of the heap in my heart. God knew my heart!

Growing up in backwoods West Virginia was not that bad. I didn’t know I was poor until I was old enough to go to school and found out all the other kids had indoor plumbing instead of an outhouse. And they had running water instead of a well with a bucket. They probably didn’t have cardboard walls either, but there was no way for me to know as I was never ever invited to a birthday party or sleepover.

God did, however, gift me with the ability to succeed in school. And He did allow me to be born into a loving family. But once you think of yourself as a second class citizen, those feelings are hard to shake, and here at the conference they were again worming their way to the surface. I will never be as useful as the other women here. Why would God even want to try to use me as a speaker and writer?

The laminated Scripture card….there it was, “You are precious and honored in my sight, and I love you.” Precious and honored. Me! Highly valued. Esteemed in God’s sight. Precious enough for Him to give His only Son. Precious enough that He wants to know me and spend time with me. I am precious enough for Him to use this ordinary woman to do extraordinary things for Him….through whatever avenues He will use in the future. In a word, I am LOVED.