Not many things bring me more joy than getting to show kids love. Two of my hardest workers didn't have the best meet today and continually came up to me in tears. Finally, I sat them down (these are two different occasions I might add) and asked them where they found their worth. Both told me it was in the pool. My heart sank. Had I portrayed a coach who only cared about winning? I told them they were wrong. You don't find your worth in the pool, you find it in here. I poked both of them right below the collarbone on the left side and told them, "It's your heart that I care about. You can become an Olympian, but have a black heart and I won't call you one of my swimmers. Or, this can be the fastest you ever get (both are 10) but you continue to have a humble, kind, gentle, determined, generous, serving heart, and I will feel like I succeeded. And right now you have those qualities. You know that I call our your teammates that don't. It's more important to me to watch your character grow than your speed increase because in the end you will be remembered by your heart. Who won the Super Bowl two years ago? Ya, that's what I thought, you don't know. After awhile people won't remember your accomplishments, but they sure will remember how you treated them and others. So all I want you to do is relax and know that you are better than the time on that scoreboard. You are more than one race or one meet. You focus on making the inside good and you will succeed."
I sort of worried that all of that went over their ten year old heads, but when I saw both of their tear-filled eyes marvel in the fact that they were good people and how highly I thought of them, I knew they had received the message loud and clear. Man, did the Holy Spirit give me those words. Yes, that is what I desire more than anything, but the way I said it was beyond eloquent. It flowed without force and after I finished talking to them I was a little shocked. And to top it off, I was moved myself. I was filled with this peace and this joy that couldn't have come from me.
Then there was my girl who killed her old time and not only got the A time, but came close to getting her AA. That family has adopted me as their own in so many ways. I have been so blessed to have come in contact with them. Today, I got to hug my swimmer after her race, I got a pep talk from dad about life, and I got a "we would not have hit that without you" text from mom. The thing is I didn't really do anything. She did all of the hard work, I just gave her the means to get there. It just encourages me that I am so loved on this team. I am so thankful that God put me here. I am so thankful that I was given the opportunity to coach and love on these kids.
And lastly, my high schoolers. Yesterday, I was in the Word and it hit me, "Why am I not studying with my girls?" I text a few and told them my idea and asked if any would be interested. Well my first "mistake" was texting a bunch of high schoolers who never detach from their phones. But thankfully they don't because news spread like wildfire and in the next hour only but a few didn't know about the idea and not a single one wasn't into it. I call it a mistake because I didn't get much alone time after that. My phone was buzzing continuously for the rest of the evening with questions, suggestion, but mostly excitement. Man, how I loved seeing them excited for a little time with God. So today, the questions still didn't stop. They were excited to know when we got to start. I just told them to pray about the details since I didn't really know and on Tuesday, after morning practice, we would sit down and talk about it. That's the thing, I have no idea any of the details. I just know that it was put on my heart to do this, and I know the Lord is faithful. The details will work themselves out. I can't wait to see what He has in store for us. I know that I will be teaching them, but I also know they will be teaching me, and in the process our team will be brought together, and our goal will change from competing for ourselves and instead, competing for Christ.
What a day. That's really the only words I know to say after a day like this. The quote, "time spent with the Lord is never wasted" is really showing to be true. Thank God for that.
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