It's Not How Good You Are

   Some of you know that I am a soccer coach. I have coached children from age 3-18. This past fall I was the JV coach for a high school girl's team. This was my second season working with this age group at this level.
   Coming into the season I knew I would have a young team. I began to prepare for the season with my team in mind. I found drills that would be better catered to the girls' needs. I created a meeting sheet so I could have individual meetings with the girls to help meet them where they are at. I also began preparing myself by spending time with God; so that when I was in season I would be reminded who to lean on. Each day during pre-season I would pass a sign that said: "It's not how good you are it's how good you want to be." I began thinking about that saying more and more...
   We split our teams, the season began, and it was a bit rough at first. Many of the girls had not played together. Some of them had not played for a long time, or ever. We had to go back to basics and had to do team building so that we knew our formation and could trust one another. That's when I told the girls our quote for the season would be: "it's not how good you are, it's how good you want to be" (Paul Arden).
   We got about 1/4 of the way through the season and we were still a bit rough around the edges. But, the girls began to improve. They came out each day and worked hard during practice. They began to understand my coaching style. They began to put that quote into practice. We didn't win many games but I think the girls had fun and learned a lot, about soccer and life.
   Why should this matter to you? It shouldn't unless you think about that quote and apply it to your life. Have you ever had a skill you've wanted to improve in? If you have, did you just sit around and hope you would get better? No, you did things so you would get better.
   How good do you want to be when it comes to walking like Christ? I hope that you said you want to try to become more and more like him each day. In order to do that you need to work at it. You can pray, spend time with him, read the Bible, etc. Yes, Jesus loves us even though we are sinners. But, we need to try to be like him and not live in our sin. Because... "It’s not how good you are, it's how good you want to be" (Paul Arden).
   So, are you working hard to be like Jesus? What can you do to become more like him today?

   1 John 2:6, 1 Peter 2:21, Ephesians 4:22-24

   Image from here.