Wednesday, July 3, 2013

A Life Lesson from My Eight Year Old




                Baseball is a crazy sport where I live. Well, it's not that the sport itself is any more ridiculous, it's just that it's taken so seriously that it gets a little crazy. My son, who is 8, made the all star team this year. I was super excited for him. Only 12 players out of his entire league made the cut. I was especially proud of him because baseball was never my sport. I don't particularly enjoy watching it and when I played as a child, I was terrible. But he really enjoys it and is a decent player. He, by no means, is the best player on the team. He may actually be toward the bottom. He generally catches the ball very well, he's not afraid of it, he's one of the top two or three fastest kids, and he's pretty good at bat. He needs a lot of work throwing though. But, like I said, he's not the worst, but certainly not the best either.
                In the state tournament he just played in he taught me a lesson I'll never forget. He had been playing first base, but in this particular game he wasn't playing at all. He wasn't in the batting line up, nor was he playing the field. The coach had him collecting the bats...and that was pretty much it. I was confused, frustrated, and if I'm honest...hurt. My son should be playing...somewhere. I was getting furious. Why was my son the only player on the entire team through 3 innings not to step on the field. So, in my heated frustration (which if you know me, you know that generally things don't bother me at all) I marched myself right over to the dugout and yelled at the coaches, "Does Dawson need to pack up his bag right now? Do we need to go home or is he actually going to play?" I continued, "I'm not trying to be a jerk, but this is ridiculous!" The coach chipped in, "Well, you're being a pretty good one right now! But he's going in, every kid has to play." I stomped away still fuming. My poor, pitiful child who wasn't getting to play for his team was about to go in because the team "every kid HAS to play." That was even more of an insult to me. I packed up my bag chair and left the infield viewing area and went out to where my wife and mother-in-law had already moved to.
                Once I sat back down, it hit me. I had become the very thing I can't stand. I let my emotions get the best of me and in turn, showed everyone there the worst of me...including my son who stared at me in the dugout throughout my entire Mr. Hyde episode.  knew immediately that I needed to apologize. After the game, I quickly found all three coaches and apologized for my actions. I apologized to their wives as well. After all, they don't answer to me. I'm not the coach, they are. The coach calmly talked to me and explained why my son wasn't playing that particular game and it honestly all made since...and had nothing to do with him as a player. Everyone was very forgiving and explained to me that they had all pretty much been there before.
                However, the real lesson in this didn't come until my son came out of the dugout. He ran up to me with the biggest grin on his face. He excitedly yelled, "Dad! Guess what!? I got to be the bat boy! It was awesome! I also got to be a runner for one of the other kids! It was great!" So you see, there it is. My son had a blast! Isn't that why we let him play to begin with? Isn't that the whole reason he was there? Wasn't that the whole reason sports were invented...for people to recreate and have fun? Here I was trying my best to protect my poor child from the evil coach monster that was destroy his fun and he was having the time of his life doing exactly what he was asked to do. Oh, by the way, I always tell him to "just be ready to do whatever the coach asks you to do." Maybe it would behoove me to start asking my kids how things are rather than assuming I already know. As parents, maybe we do a little too much assuming and not enough talking. If I would have waited until after the game and have seen my sons response first, I could have spare everyone having to watch me act like a fool.

James 1:19
My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry.

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