Reflections of perspective...

My middle daughter spent most of her childhood on a soccer field. She played the sport every fall and spring from the time she was four years old. Danny was her coach for a lot of those years. He started coaching her when the team was co-ed. When the shin guards were bigger than her little legs. When the highlight of the game was getting everyone to move towards the right goal. When the perspective of the game was simple. When we stood on the sidelines with the other parents and cheered on the team and all of the players and enjoyed the community of being together.


As she got older, the perspective of the game changed. The girls no longer played on teams with the boys. The cleats and the shin guards were a necessity. The highlight of the game was winning. By the time she got to high school we no longer stood on the sidelines. We all had chairs and blankets and coolers. We went on weekend game trips. We spent lots of time and money. The community part began to change. It was not always a nice atmosphere. More times than not, the parents did not act like the adults.


When you are living in the middle of a season with your child, it is hard to keep the right perspective. A lot of times we found ourselves caught up in the ridiculousness of competitive sports. There were times that we had to take a step back and regroup. We changed teams several times over the years. We bought countless pairs of cleats and uniforms and pictures. We loved watching her play and grow and learn. But there were lots of hard lessons through the years.


Team sports teach invaluable lessons to our children. I am all for a little competition and the life lessons that come with that. But as I look back at my perspective during those years, I have to be transparent and say that it was not always right. This morning during my quiet time I spent some time looking at my journal entries for October over the years. I noticed that there was a pattern to a lot of what I wrote. The height of soccer season and the emotions that were attached dominated a lot of space in my journal. As I read some of my thoughts throughout the years, I laughed at myself. Some of it seemed silly as I looked back with the perspective I have now. Of course, at the time the emotions and the feelings were very real.


Ansley did not play soccer her senior year. She decided it was time to hang up her cleats. She loved the game. She loved her teammates. She still is friends with a lot of them. But the lessons learned over all those years are shaping the young woman she is becoming. The tears. The joy. The heartache. The perspective. All of it is being worked together for her good. Only because she chooses to look at that part of her life from God's perspective. And He was faithful to show her how He works.


The summer before her senior year, she went to South Africa for a month. She lived there and shared in the lives of members of a local church in Durban. She helped with kids clubs and participated in church activities. She went into a remote village as part of a mission trip with the youth of the church. It just so happened that the Soccer World Cup was being held in South Africa during her time there. She saw the stadiums and the crowds from around the world that gathered for the love of the game. She saw a country embrace a game that brought healing. A country that was emerging from years of oppression and division. She experienced a group of people watch their country play a game she knew well. A game that she loved too. She had the opportunity to share Jesus through a game that had not only caused her some emotional pain but given her life lessons that she could share with others. 


She hasn't put on a pair of cleats for a while now, but she still loves the game. The little girl that started playing a game with passion is using what she learned to reach others. She also has a heart for missions. And as I look back at what God did throughout her young life, I see clearly what He is going to do in her future. The passion for a game. The passion for her God. The passion she has for life. It is all being worked together for good. 

And we know that God causes everything to work together 

for the good of those who love God 

and are called according to His purpose for them.

Romans 8:28 NLT