The teams consist of 5th and 6th graders. And the first game they played was pretty good. We did lose, but only by one basket. Not bad, I know. The boys seemed unharmed and in good spirits. Their steps were filled with strides, they had comeback from losing by quite a few, to just a shot. Smiles were beaming and high fives were flying and in walks their next competitor, Team Detroit.
Towering young men file into the gym. I have never seen so many ten to thirteen year olds that tall in all of my thirty four years but apparently they can be that size because I saw it in plain sight and so did our little basketball team. Wide-eyed they stood and waited for the referee to toss the jump ball to begin the game. And as the giant reaches easily, tipping the ball to his teammate, my husband looks at me and mutters,
"Oh boy, here we go..."
And so it began....and the next words out of his mouth were,
"It's like taking candy from a baby....what do you do with that?"
And the score board was filling up on one side, making it's way all the way to 60 something with our side still at 0.
Defeat was thick and hope was thin and just when we thought that our two sons were in the least bit athletically elite, we were so put in our place and humbled.....
And as I watched these boys literally facing the giants and never giving up, I was encouraged...
You see most days, I wake in the morning and feel beaten down and insufficient. Giants are towering in the hectic schedules and cluttered closets. They are lurking, waiting to knock me down and tell me what an incompetent mother I am...How I've failed as a wife, sister, daughter, friend...The scoreboard is definitely not in my favor as I tally up the mistakes. Shortcomings and failures rack up and my good behavior points don't measure up far enough at all.
But I cannot allow all that is against me to keep me out of the game. I may be facing some fierce opponents, giants... if you will...They may knock me down and bruise me hard. They may take the ball from me just like taking candy from a baby, especially when I try to play all by myself. Only when I pass the ball off, take the burden of my performance and hand it over to the only one in whom there is true victory...will I win.
Our boys, they played a tough game. They never gave up and hung in there. The final score was 78-13, with us finally making our first basket in the second half of the game. Jonah is the one who made it and the other team cheered as loud as we did when it happened! And what a proud mama was I when all of the fans were all cheering for my sweet son! :) Makes me wonder and imagine how proud our Heavenly Father must be of His one and only Son!
O victory in Jesus
My Savior, forever
He sought me and bought me
With His redeeming blood
Eugene Monroe Bartlett Sr.
