Lessons from Little League

My son's 11-13 year-old baseball team recently won the championship for a 10-day Little League All-Star tournament in north/northeast Dallas, and we couldn’t have asked for a better coach.

            The coach emphasized how he was not concerned with the boys striking out or making errors in the field. As he told the boys, errors will happen; ballplayers strike out. More important is how they conduct themselves while playing the game. For example, he expected his players to run back to the dugout after a bad, third-strike call, and not argue with the umpires. He expected his players to run onto the field when it was their turn to play defense. He instructed the players not to get down on themselves when they made errors, because the next play would be coming.

            In other words, for my son's coach, it’s how you play the game that is most important, and it is not about perfection. And who can argue with the man; we won the whole tournament playing baseball this way!

            The same thing applies to life. We will get bad calls and bad breaks. We will make mistakes. We will not succeed in every endeavor. What truly defines our success in life and faith is our attitude. It is so easy to get down on our selves or others, or complain that things aren’t fair. It is easy to give up and mope. Every day is a new opportunity to run onto the field, ready to play the game, because our next chance may be just around the corner!