Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Brothers Built for Adversity


Van played our rivals last week for the district championship.  On the morning of the game Layton woke up, throwing up.  The rest of my kids and my wife had the same bug earlier in the week and we were hoping Layton and Colt were going to avoid this virus.  Despite all of our precautions he was sick on Friday morning.  Layton tried to keep us from finding out and he went to school only to have the trainer call us an hour later saying we needed to come get him.   He lay in bed with a bucket by his side all day and when it was time to go to the fieldhouse he was still not himself, but he was determined to play.  My only advice to Layton was if you decide to play, decide to play as if you were 100% hold nothing back.  You know Layton did exactly that.  He played hard and ended up with an interception in the fourth quarter to seal the deal.

I couldn’t have been more proud of my son!  Not because he made an interception but because he played and because he played without moaning or complaining.  He denied himself and put his teammates ahead of his own needs, rose up, and met the challenge not for his own glory but for a bigger purpose.  To me, this encapsulates the essence of being a Godly man.   Godly men need to be willing to lay down their lives in small and big ways for the love of their fellow man.  They need to be ready to deny their flesh when their flesh is screaming “take care of me!”  Godly men are those who do what is needed and what is right regardless of circumstances.  They trust God to give them the strength needed to get the job done even when they feel weak and incapable.  While this game might be a small matter in the whole of a person’s life, Layton laid a few more stones in the foundation of Kingdom greatness by following our King’s example of laying down his life for his brothers.
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