Sports

Once we found out that Nichole is pregnant, we immediately began praying that God would prepare us and mold us into parents that would honor and serve Him as we raise our children.  I try to pray every day that God would prepare me specifically as a dad.  One area that I can see God changing me, although somewhat trivial, is in my attitude towards sports.  I think the Lord actually began this work in me, or maybe I finally allowed Him to, a year or two ago, but the pace of change seems to be accelerating.  I love sports, always have.  I love playing them and watching them.  If you know me, you know I am extremely competitive, to a fault.  Even in watching sports, I am competitive and often times have been known to become quite excited while watching a game, both positively and negatively.  And while I don’t think watching sports, or even getting excited about them,  is bad, the amount of importance and affect they would have on me was.  God has been changing my heart so that while I am watching I am no longer angry when my team messes up and not as excited when they win.  Maybe this is because the teams I root for always disappoint (with the exception of the 2008 Phillies, see 2009-2011 Phillies and every Eagles team since the day I was born).  But seriously, I am realizing that God doesn’t and never will care about how many championships our favorite team has.  Wins, losses, championships, they all will mean nothing in eternity, only what we did for the Lord will.  And so, while I surely will continue to enjoy watching sports, I watch them more because I enjoy it and less because I want the team to win.  I do, but I don’t care as much.  And actually, the end result is better.  I think God is using this to prepare me to be a father because one trait I had was having a temper while playing and watching sports (it was even worse when playing).  I have some regrets about some of my actions, mainly on the tennis court, and I don’t want my child to inherit those particular actions from me.  Since I don’t play competitive sports anymore, God is using watching sports and changing my attitude towards that.  I am thankful for the way God answers prayers and while I am not perfect, I am so glad He is amazingly gracious to continue to mold us into His image if we ask Him and are faithful.