Not everyone is a great athlete. My kids play a lot of sports and we have had our share of coaches — the good, the bad, and unfortunately, the ugly. But we learned valuable lessons. With our first child, we “tried out” the AYSO soccer when she was in third grade. Having been encouraged by others that it was a good program, not competitive, everyone plays, good for your little girl, etc, etc, we talked her into giving it a try.“Just give it a try, if you don’t like it, you don’t have to stay…”I thought she would never return after that first year of soccer, but she did, and she became good. She became very good and we aspired to the club soccer scene. She played a lot of club soccer, high school soccer, and college soccer. She could juggle the ball without letting it touch the ground upwards of 1000 times. We traveled all over the country for soccer.
Her coaches were tough on her. She had long workouts, some of which helped her improve, and some which were “ugly” in that the coach became ugly, name calling, many things that you would never sign your kid up for as a thinking parent. We also had three more kids playing at the same time. It was our life for a while — three games every Saturday.
It seems in life that if you have more promise as an athlete, the tougher the workout. And, the tougher the workout, the better you get. The more years dedicated to those workouts, the more you can handle.
Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of – throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.”
— C.S. Lewis (Mere Christianity)
All of my kids look on their soccer experiences, the good, the bad and the ugly–as mostly good times. They have learned the value of working through difficulties. And they have become stronger.
Life is sort of like soccer, there’s a lot of disappointments, successes, bumps and bruises.
