Warming the Bench

Today was a really bad day. Not in what we did. Ian had a great interview in Memphis & will find out in a few days if he gets to go to Europe next summer. Lynnea had an all day basketball tournament, her first on the team, so we spent the rest of the day when we weren't in Memphis at their school. No, it was just an emotionally bad day. You know, most days it doesn't bother me so much that I don't fit. I've learned over the years to protect that part of my heart. But, today was hard. And I was crabby & didn't handle it well. But, as is so often the case, one of my children gave me an attitude adjustment without even realizing it.

Lynnea has never played basketball in her life, she's only in 6th grade, and she's very small for her age. She's a spitfire, though, and she made the middle school team. She's on the JV team, so for the tournament today, she spent 4 of the 5 games on the bench. She had a great attitude all day, did her best during the game the JV-ers played, and encouraged the rest of her teammates. After the tournament I drove her the 40 minutes to Humboldt for a birthday party. Throughout the day we had talked some, and as we drove I asked her again what kinds of things the coach told them after the games. They had lost all but one game, so their coach was understandably not very happy. Lynnea said that there were times where they had to go outside & run. All of them. Whether they had played that game or not. She accepted that without any complaints.

And then she began telling me what the coach had said. In Lynnea's words, it was things like: "She said we needed to pass the ball more." "We didn't play our positions." "We needed to stay between the other team & the basket better." And so on. Even though she had sat on the bench most of the time, she took ownership of everything the coach had said. She plans to work on every single thing in order to make her game & the team better.

As someone who spends most of my time sitting on the bench, I can & should learn a lot from my daughter's attitude. This bench-warming time is when I can learn from the good & bad things others do in the game, keep a steady intake of advice from the coach, and be thankful for & give my best effort when I'm allowed in the game, even if just for a few minutes. My life verse is Phil. 3:16- "But let us live up to what we have already attained." God doesn't expect me to do the things I haven't learned yet, but He does expect obedience in the things I do know. And as I learn more, I am expected to put those things into practice. As I continue to grow in my faith, my opportunities to get in the game will increase. Faithfulness in those things will result in even more playing time. It is extremely humbling that my 11 year old gets it, yet it's so hard for me to remember sometimes. I'm hopeful that one day I will consistently be a starting player, but in the meantime I pray that the Lord would continue to give me a humble, teachable, faithful heart to do my best in the waiting.