My favorite sport right now, and the only sport I have been watching, isn’t the NFL, NBA, or NCAA but rather Grade School Varsity Basketball. Our oldest child, Rachel, is in 7th grade and a member of the St. John’s Eagles. This has been an awesome year as the Eagles are heading into their Christmas break with a perfect 14-0 record! They won the Walther tournament for the first time in many years. Of course we don’t get carried away at the games and we’re more concerned about how they play, etc., etc. but it is fun to win.

The true test of any team or individual comes when things are tough. Last week the team had an easy game on Monday (up 20-0 at the end of the 1st quarter) followed by a difficult game on Tuesday. The hard game was away against some tall, strong, athletic young women (hard to believe they were still in grade school). The game was tied at halftime and early in the 3rd quarter my daughter was hit hard in the face by an elbow from an opposing player. She was hurt and had to leave the game. However, she recovered and went back into the game. I was glad that the Eagles pulled out a tough 5 point victory but more glad that my daughter can take a shot and come back. I know in life she will have problems and hopefully she is learning to bounce back and keep going.

I believe this is one of the good lessons to be learned in sports. My daughter will be better prepared for life if she learns how to deal with conflict and opposition more and more. As parents we need to protect our kids but not necessarily make life easy or remove challenges. We’re all going to receive some ‘elbows in the face’ at times but with Christ we will have the strength to handle whatever comes our way. Our faith grows each time we ‘take a shot’ and come back with faith and obedience to the Lord.

As Peter told the church many years ago, “In this [your salvation] you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.” 1Peter 1:6-7