My Life as a COMMA!

That's my football player!!!

Here is my sweet boy, Bryce in all his football gear!  What a boy!  Well….this past Saturday was his last season game.  His team was 8-0 going into this game!  The boys were pumped up!  They had practiced four nights the week before and had practiced for over an hour before the game started.  Then……it started.  The other team got the ball and on their first drive they scored a touchdown!!! =(

And then…within a few minutes…..they scored another touchdown!  Our boys seemed defeated.  Now yes…the other team was a MUCH bigger team…some of those boys were bigger than our boy’s dads!!!  But our boys mustered their courage and their strength and they played with all their might.  But in the end…..they lost 32-0.  It was a hard fought loss….but a loss just the same.  The boys gathered round to listen to their coach…and PRAISE GOD for a coach that told them to hold their heads up high.  Praise Him that our coach told them as long as they went out there on that field and played for the parents and grandparents who took them to every practice and to know they did their best……!  Then as they were told to break it down…(football talk for the little chant they do in their huddle!)…the boys pointed to another boy to do it who was visibly upset!  Then…my sweet boy went over and got a hug from his PaPa.  Then, when he saw me….he came at me and head butted my chest and just started crying.  I held him and he held me…tightly!  I looked and several of the boys were crying.  Not because they are wimps and couldn’t handle it…but because losing hurts.  This was a loss to them.  A big one!  This also was the end of the season.  Their last game together of this year.

Then, last night my son got to go to the freshman football game.  Our high school team was in the state championship!  My best friend’s son plays for the team and these boys have been together for quite a while.  They are winners..  They play hard and they play to win.  But it didn’t happen last night.  Last night they lost.  They fought hard and only lost 25-18…..but it was still a loss.  And my friend told me that after the game the boys were all coming up to her and the other parents and hugging them and crying!  Sounded all too familiar.  But again, it is not because they were wimps and couldn’t handle to lose.  It is because it is a loss.  It is something we had hoped for and not been able to achieve.  But thankfully, the varsity coach was there to tell them that although this season was over…..he was sooooo excited to have this team move up and to work with them next season!

Did you catch that….??   next season…… so…even though there was a loss….even though this season is over…..there will be a next season!!!

It is kind of like that in life.  It reminds me of these verses….

For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven.  A time to be born and a time to die.  A time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.

~Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

This sums it all up.  There are times for everything.  I think that looking forward to something so much and then not achieving it……like a win of a big game……is perfectly ok.  But remember… there will be another season.

Maybe it isn’t football for you….maybe it is a relationship that has become toxic….or just drifted apart.  It doesn’t mean that it didn’t mean a lot to you at the time…it just means that maybe there is something else out there now and the other person is going a different way too.  Nobody has to be right….or wrong.  Just different seasons of each of your lives.

Maybe you have become comfortable in a job, your marriage….or whatever…..but know that you should move forward instead of standing still.  Take action…..learn that the next season might be EVEN BETTER than the one you are in right now!  Know that if you take that next step toward a dream of a better life…better marriage….better relationship….better you…yes...you might end up hurt.  AND…you might even fail….so go ahead and cry….weep for a while.  But get up…dust yourself off…and start all over again!!  For another season….another time is waiting for you….but you cannot achieve it if you don’t try.

Now….our team does get to go to the playoffs…and play again.  We will see what happens.  But no matter what I am proud of those boys.  They achieved a lot this season.  A lot they can build upon for NEXT season!

I love you, Bryce!  I will always cheer you on…..and hold you when you cry! ~mom