Lessons Learned from Baseball

We're a baseball family.

Been standing or sitting behind a diamond for 27 years now.

I drove pass my son's high school batting cages

this week and saw some kids practicing.

I cried.

Oh, the memories!

#5

That's my boy!

Some lessons we learned from baseball.

1.  Always be ready for your "at bat."

There was t-ball, minor league, major league, all-stars.

There was middle school ball,

c-team, b-team, and finally varsity.

There was summer league and fall league

and the traveling team.

Some of those games, he spent on the bench, 

watching, waiting, hoping, praying

for a chance at bat.

Sometimes it meant being the team's cheerleader.

Encouraging someone else's dream.

Sometimes in life, it seems that we spend more time on the bench

than we do at bat.

Sometimes it feels unfair that someone else gets put in the game

when we've been on the team longer

Chad's daddy always said, 

"Practice, Practice, Practice.  Work hard. Be ready."

"...Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks

you to give a reason for the hope that you have."  1 Peter 3:15

2.  Keep Your Eye on the Ball

Forget the crowd, the boos and the applause or anything
that will distract.

Chad's dad would say,
"Never take your eye off the ball,
watch it all the way in."

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses,
let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that
so easily entangles, and let up run with perseverance the race
marked out for us.  Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the
author and perfecter of our faith....Consider Him who endured such
opposition from sinful men, so that we will not grow weary and lose heart."
Hebrews 12:1-3

Being a mother, there were times when I wanted to shush everyone
so that my son would not be distracted.
I asked him one time,
"Did you hear everyone yelling your name?"
He said,
"I don't ever hear a thing.  I am too focused to be distracted."

I need to learn that lesson in life.

3.  Swing

...even if it means you may strike out once in a while.

In life, when we take three steps forward and two steps backward,
at least we're not standing still.

So swing!

4.  Run with All Your Might

"Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one
gets the prize.  Run in such a way as to the prize."
1 Corinthians 9:24

5.  Never Quit!  Never Give Up!

My boy?

The coach said, "He's not college material."
"He'll never play college ball."

He went on to play four years for Trevecca Nazarene University
and a summer with the FCA Grays.

"So, do not throw away your confidence, it will be richly rewarded.
You need to persevere so that when you have done the
will of God, you will receive what He has promised."

Give up?
NEVER!

A Trojan uniform!
The hair?
The Championship series.
We don't cut!

Staying in the Game,

Bonnie:)