She gets it from her momma

I always think it is amazing when Mother's Day or Father's Day comes around and suddenly, social media is lit up with positive, uplifting posts about parents. It makes me smile to see the old photos, the heartwarming stories, and the love that is just pouring out of folks. Typically, social media is crushed with negativity and scapegoating.

As for me, I kind of fell silent this Mother's Day on social media. I wanted to soak in everything that was being said about parents. I wasn't mad at my mom, mother-in-law, grandma or aunt. I don't love them any less that day just because I enjoyed everyone's posts and waited to write something up of my own. (But you would be surprised how many people notice you didn't write something. Maybe I post too much! HAHA) However, I can't let the time pass without sharing with you about the woman who made me who I am.

I'll be totally straight up with you. I may have been a good kid growing up, but I know for my mom, I wasn't the easiest daughter to raise. Probably from day one, my mom and I were different from each other. I can almost guarantee you, I wasn't the little girl she probably had dreamed about having from the time she discovered she wanted to be a mom. I was rough, tumble, and loud. (I'm pretty much still all those things.) I didn't like dresses, having my hair fixed, or being without my basketball. Now, that's not to say I didn't like girl things. I carried around a Cabbage Patch doll, and I had some barbies and a few My Little Ponies that ran around with Rainbow Brite. Yet, I was drawn to GI Joes, Thundercats, and Voltron. I can only imagine what she thought as she watched my GI Joes riding around on pretty pink and white ponies with pictures on their rears.

As I got older, the difference in our personalities became more pronounced. However, she immersed herself in my world--basketball. She went to games and learned to do the books and the score board. She has eaten thousands of concession stand dinners, chaperoned too many kids in hotel rooms (where she saw a dead cat under a bed--seriously, an awesome story for another time), and washed far too many sweaty pairs of socks and jerseys. Late nights, fast food meals, and long bus rides were her life from the time I was in 6th grade until I graduated from Piedmont.

How she dealt with a kid that was so different from who she was, is beyond me. Sometimes, as a parent, I talk to the boys and the difference in how we each think blows me away. Of course, it's to be expected because of the gender difference. One would think that with us being women, it would be more similar. It wasn't. I am sure she thought I was insane not just because of my interests, but in the way that I thought.

You see, my mom is an awesome woman. She always dresses nice, wears make-up, fixes her hair and is sweet to everyone. I rarely dress like anything other than a hobo. The closest I get to make-up is Chapstick. I haven't had a hair cut in probably two years. And sweet? Let's just say, I cherish the people who think that I am remotely anything like that. My mom has always cared what people think about her and I usually don't think twice about it. For the most part, my mom knows what to say to make people feel better. I have been told I am too critical. She invests in relationships and I struggle to keep them going. I felt like she always had a handle on my sister and I. She was the ultimate chaos coordinator. Me, on the other hand....I am just treading water every day.

I know she would never in a million years believe this, but she really seemed to have it all together. Looking back over those years when she was dealing with me and my craziness as a teenager, I know I frustrated her to no end, but I felt like she dealt with it and then moved on. By the next day she was treating me like normal again. Here I have elementary age children and I feel like I drag the same feelings around for days. How did she do that?

In all honesty, my mom and I aren't as different as I would like to believe. We both love our children with every fiber of our beings. She is the one who taught me how to do that. She and I have sacrificed a lot for our kids. She gave up other career opportunities where she would have had a retirement account and insurance with a more impressive salary, to work at a Christian school with hardly any benefits except a discount on tuition (that was reduced practically each year). I learned everything I know about sacrifice from her and my dad. Her sacrifice was more obvious to me though because I saw it every day. I feel her pain now that I have experienced a similar type of sacrifice. Neither of us are super awesome housekeepers. I think we both live by the motto, "Spending time with our kids > than an organized home." We both love people. I can remember from a very young age watching my mom love on her friends. I always thought she was a great person to have on your side. She still is. While I am not the best at cultivating relationships with others, I do love people. I have always tried to do that through my careers through the years. We both get hangry. Never was a truer sentence written. Let's be honest ladies......there aren't many of us who don't get that way right? The similarities don't end there. We have the same horse hair that is so thick that you will die of heat exhaustion in the summer. We both love mushrooms and traveling. Neither of us like scary movies or change.

Honestly, everything you see about me that is good, came from being taught by her and my dad. She invested every ounce of herself into raising my sister and I. If you think highly of me at all, it is because of the prayers, tears, and emotional struggle that she went through every day. Thank you is not sufficient for her.

The neat thing though? She learned from her mom too. I get the benefit of learning from both of these women. I mean, how blessed is this girl? So many other women invested in my life in a positive way, aunts, great-aunts, great-grandmas, that when Mother's Day comes each year, I am reminded that I am also to be this for my kids, nieces, and nephews. They leave such a legacy and lead by example. Hopefully, one day, I will get to hear my kids say the same thing about me and I will simply tell them, "I get it from my momma!"

Happy Mother's Day from the Chief Chaos Coordinator of the Cox Crew!

I guess they do grow up, don't they.

If you have read much of what we write or if you have watched our Facebook Live sessions, you know that we think parenting is a really hard thing to do. I remember sometime after TJ was born all of a sudden at one point having the weight of the responsibility hit me. Our parenting has eternal consequences. We are responsible for the soul of another human being. That is a tremendous amount of pressure! And now we have three of them.

TJ turned 10 years old recently. With him reaching the teenage years, it has caused me to think a lot about my role in his life and how we teach him to grow to be a man. I don't feel successful as a father in a lot of ways, like I should be spending more one-on-one time with him and really teaching him how to do life the right way. To be honest, Jen teaches him a lot. She's home with him every day and has been for a few years. She takes the time to play sports with him and those types of things. I think it is good that he is learning from her in some ways, but I know there is pressure on me to be influential in certain areas. I also know that she wants to me to "step up" more in meeting this need.

Update Fall 2018: TJ made the Middle School Tennis Team!

TJ played soccer for a few seasons when he was 4-6 I think. Jen and I both hate soccer, and we were so relieved when he decided not to play anymore. But we have always been careful not to pressure him to do too many things he wasn't really interested in. He said he was interested in engineering, or maybe we just assumed that, so he took a bunch of engineering classes. He had not played any more sports until recently. Reilly played basketball in the fall, and TJ started talking about it a little, but 10 years old is a little late by today's standards to start playing a sport.

One day we were at Academy Sports in Gainesville and found a great deal on some basketball shoes his size. He kind of decided then he might give basketball a try. He had never been interested in it at all before. I told him if we bought the shoes that meant he was playing, and he said okay. Fast forward to the "player evaluations" that took place a couple of months ago. He went in and came out after a few minutes and I met him away from other people at which time he said, "Well, I stunk." (Actually, he said, "Well, I sucked" but we don't like that word in our house and so I didn't want to write it.)

It broke my heart, but it was a big deal that he was even trying and I was already so proud. It was way out of his comfort zone. He doesn't like to look silly, and I'm pretty sure he felt silly out there. His team practiced a few times, and he was lost and felt out of place. To be honest he couldn't even really catch a ball, let alone dribble to the basket and shoot a layup. It was so hard for me to watch, and I wanted to go help him, but I had to let him grow on his own in that setting. 

After several practices, they had their first game. He was still lost, but he was getting better little by little. Then it seemed like a switch flipped inside him. All of a sudden, we didn't have to force him to go outside and practice. He wanted to do it on his own, and he did, and it helped that Jen was able to work with him. Since then he has had a few more games, and he, by some miracle, has developed somewhat of a passion for it. 

Most of you know that I love basketball, and Jen loves it too. We both experienced the personal growth and gained so much value from playing the sport all the way through college and then coaching after that. So we would love for all our kids to be passionate about basketball, but we are okay if it's not basketball. We just want them to be passionate about SOMETHING. TJ has always been passionate about reading, and history, and video games. But never in a million years did we think he would develop any kind of desire to be good at, and win in, basketball. That day has come. Even if it is short-lived, we are so proud that he is trying and practicing to be better. He has a long way to go, but in the game tonight he got a couple steals, forced a couple turnovers, got a couple rebounds, dribbled (!), attempted several shots, and got more involved. So I need to spend more time helping him develop and improve.

The other night TJ and Reilly and Jen were playing 21 and I was about to head out to play some hoops myself. TJ was making it very difficult for Reilly to do anything, and at one point I grabbed TJ's arm and yanked him away to let Reilly have a chance to shoot. TJ immediately started crying and ran to his mom and sobbed. We were just messing around, but later I asked him why he was so upset. He explained that his 35-year-old dad grabbed his arm and pulled him away when he was about to get the ball and go make an easy shot when he only had one point and his mom had a lot more. It was partly that he wanted to beat his mom, and it was partly that I treated him like a little kid that made him so upset. I realized at that moment that all of a sudden, he really needs me to respect him in a more "grown-up" way. He needs me to treat him not so much like a little rag doll that I can throw around. He needs to know that I now see him as more than just a little kid. The next night he came inside bawling because he was so close to beating his mom in 21. I explained to him that it would never happen, so to not get so upset about it. :)

At the Christmas program at church, there were some fairly long stretches where most of the kids sat on stage and watched the program play out. TJ was acting like a crazy person. Seriously, I'm not exaggerating to say he looked like a lunatic. He was hitting Reilly in the back of the head. He was seemingly making fun of other kids who were telling him to be quiet. It was insane. It was so unlike him. I was so frustrated and getting so upset that almost wanted to walk on stage and grab him by the arm to drag him off. Really I was torn between doing that or walking out of the sanctuary. I kept my composure. Maybe no one else noticed, but I was boiling. After the program was over, we realized he was acting like an idiot because he was trying to impress a girl he was sitting next to on stage.

So at this point in his life, we have a young man who is experiencing these emotions and feelings and thoughts that I know are really difficult for him to process and understand. I need to be there to put my arm around his shoulder and explain that life is going to be hard to figure out sometimes. He needs to know that girls in school or at church can cause boys to do some pretty stupid things. (I'm pretty sure at the beach one time when I was in middle school I tried to do a backflip in about a foot of water trying to impress some girls. I did about half of a backflip and landed on my head. My neck still hurts. I'm not sure if the girls were impressed.) He also needs to learn that girls don't always have his best interest in mind, whether he is talking to them in person or they go to his school or they are on the screen of his phone or tablet or computer. He needs to learn that from me.

He also needs to learn that women are to be respected, and that starts at home with his mom. I need to model that for him. Sometimes I do a good job, but sometimes I don't. Sometimes in cases that he has a disrespectful tone with her, I don't punish him when I should. He also needs to learn that is good to love your wife, and it's good to hug and kiss her and show affection in the home. I think I do a pretty good job with that one.

At times I tend to be passive in my teaching (Jen is rolling her eyes right now because she thinks I'm too passive with everything). But what I mean is I like to try to model the right behavior in front of the boys instead of teaching it. Someone once said, "More is caught than taught." That has to be true in some cases. Even when I played basketball I led more by example than I did ordering people around. That's not my style. I try to demonstrate that reading my Bible is something that is important to us and that God is to be honored in our household. However, I should probably be more proactive in having devotional time with the boys and more intentional about spending time with them doing specific things. That's an area I need to improve. 

Raising kids is hard. I don't want to be the reason that my boys grow up to be less than the men they should be. It's time to step up to the plate and take ownership of what is mostly my role in the household.

Small investment big return

It's 11 PM and we just got home from an exciting basketball game as Piedmont knocked off Maryville at home. I still don't like Maryville. (I wish it were easier to switch back and forth between text colors. Probably not a whole lot of people do that.) Maryville has the worst school colors ever. Maroon and orange are not a good combination. 

In any event, it's always fun when we beat Maryville. Jen's team did it often back in the day, but the men's team never did when I was playing. Yeah you should have said it's always fun when OTHER people beat Maryville since you never did. One thing that made this one even more fun for me is calling the game on the radio. I've been able to follow the team closely and get to watch them improve game by game, currently on a 7 game winning streak.

Having said all that, it is a pretty big time commitment for me. I'm doing both the men's and women's games, and there are I think 11 games in January, and I had games this past week on Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. That means our kids have been either without their dad or at the gym. What's wrong with being at the gym? And it also means I don't have my personal chef for dinner. 

I have tried to get the boys involved a little. I've had the kids on the air a little bit, and they both have used the extra headset to listen in to large portions of the game. And they've really enjoyed it. In fact, Reilly is Chase England's biggest stalker...I mean fan.

But no matter what, it is still a struggle...maybe struggle isn't the right word...it's still difficult to manage the boys either at home or at the gym while he is enjoying himself so much. 

At first I wasn't a big fan of the idea (at first?). If you read my last blog post, I'm already spending a lot of time on my own with the kids So the added time of him being away is difficult for me. I talk to kids all day long.

Not to mention, if she brings the kids to the game, they are often going to bed really late. I think they just now all three fell asleep at 11:10 PM. (On a side note, we're not those really good parents that do a good job of keeping their kids on a schedule. If you're looking for advice on that, go read another blog. Or talk to Jacob and Robin Thome. They were always good at it,) What that means is that tomorrow they might struggle to get up and get focused in the morning. And what that means is they will be big pains in the hind-end tomorrow.

A few things to take away from this...

First, as Jen mentioned, she was not and probably is not a big fan of the time I've committed to this venture. But, she knows that I enjoy it. Maybe she thinks it's a stupid thing to enjoy, but she knows I do. I don't think it's stupid. That's not a nice thing to say. I don't think it's stupid...I just miss you. Hahaha! I literally laughed in her face. But in all seriousness, both of us have to be careful about things we choose to allow to take up our time. With Jen doing photography, our time together is even more limited since much of the sessions are done on weekends or after work hours.

I try to go with her as much as I can, especially on the weekends when the opportunity presents itself. And she tries to go to the games with me when she can, or if she can't she even sometimes listens to me on the radio and texts me to tell me my side comments are killing her. Well, that's because the comments are stupid. But this is the second take away...when your spouse enjoys something, even if you don't quite get why they enjoy it, try to support them, but more than that, try to participate with them in some way. I just want to point out here that I have no hobbies. What do you call LuLaRoe then? That's called an addiction.

Another take away from this that we learned a long time ago is that it is important to invest time in your marriage, or more importantly into each other.When we were first married, we spent a great deal of time apart due to both of us working long hours at our jobs. Yours was more fun. At the time we were not devoting much time into growing our relationship. I think we suffered because of that. Every day of our marriage is the new best day of my life. (...sigh...eye roll...) What he means to say is, we are a work in progress (key word...work), and part of that work is spending time with each other and learning about each other. For instance, when your wife tells you exactly what she wants for Christmas and you go out and do the opposite, you probably should spend more time learning about each other.

(Changing subject) I think it's important that, even though there are times when one spouse will do things apart from the family that most of the time is spent together. We pretty much do everything together. (This kids even like to try to join us when we're going to the bathroom. Can I write that? Sure. You should put when one of us goes to the bathroom, It sounds like we're all going to the bathroom.) Maybe our outside friendships suffer because of that, but that's not the most important thing in my view. It's possibly also because we don't have any friends. That's not true. But we make every effort to never spend nights apart and always have. 

In the end, your spouse is who you will end up with, and by investing your time and learning to enjoy what they enjoy, you're investing in a happier future for yourselves. And you know what they say, a happy wife is a happy life (do guys even read blogs?). 

Losing what I wanted finding what I needed

The last time I felt confident that I knew the direction my life was headed, I was 23 years old. I was at my ideal weight, happily married (or so I thought—it definitely gets better with time), ready to start teaching, and wanting to change the lives of students in the Christian school at which I had almost missed my wedding rehearsal to interview for (that’s another blog post for another time). I enjoyed everything about teaching and coaching. I worked ridiculously long hours and invested everything I had into the job and the kids. I felt like I was doing exactly what I had been called to do. 

Four years in, we decided we were ready for kids. I thought I was ready until the pregnancy test read positive. I will never forget crying like a baby in total shock and absolute fear. I wasn’t sad or upset, just terrified about the whole experience—from labor and delivery to being a mother. (Plus, everyone kept telling me it would take months. I thought I would have time to prepare myself for this.) Once the shock wore off, I was fine and along came TJ. It was a hard decision, but I decided to leave full-time teaching. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do, but hoped God would provide. 

Two months in, I started feeling claustrophobic. I was nursing exclusively and I felt overwhelmed—like I never did anything but change diapers and nurse a baby. When TJ was three months, I went back to working at a school part-time. I enjoyed it and ended up back in the classroom where I thought I wanted to be. I didn’t coach during my part-time experience and I missed it so bad it literally hurt. Then we found out Reilly was on the way. At that point, my grandparents were taking care of TJ while I was at work, and I knew I couldn’t ask them to keep a toddler and a baby while I went back to work. After Reilly was born, we made the decision for me to be at home full-time. 

To be honest, I was scared to death. The old feelings of claustrophobia returned, except now, I was not only nursing a baby, I was trying to raise a toddler. So many questions and fears popped into my head. How were we going to make it financially without a second income? How will I keep my sanity? Will I lose myself? I had lost basketball, was God going to take teaching away from me now too? Who was I if I wasn’t a teacher or a coach? 

I didn’t have answers for any of these questions, but just plowed on ahead. I felt like at some point, God would have to provide. Not too long after leaving my job, Leapforce (a legit work from home opportunity) became my way to contribute to our income. It wasn’t my favorite thing to do, but it brought in what we needed to survive and I was okay with that. I remember thinking, “Okay God, you put this job in my lap so that takes care of one of my questions, but I don’t want to do this forever. I am not passionate about this.” I kind of felt like I was losing everything I had worked so hard for in college.

And then, it happened. Anthony bought me a camera for Christmas (wayyyy too much money to spend on me for sure, but had he not, I wouldn’t be doing what I am doing today). I started taking pictures of the kids. I loved it—they thought I was nuts. I brought the camera with me all the time. After a while, friends started asking me to bring my camera to birthday parties or to photograph their kids. I didn’t realize what I was getting myself into at the time. 

I found myself building a small business, doing a part-time job, and homeschooling one child. The stress was incredible. Once again, I found myself asking God—“What in the world am I doing?” I second guessed myself at every turn. I looked around at other photographers and wondered why anyone came to me for the experience. I saw only my deficiencies as a teacher to an elementary student (there was a reason I had decided to teach high school). My regular job evaluations left me wondering why in the world I even bothered to keep it up. In other words, I felt lacking at every turn. I didn’t understand where I was in life and where it was headed. 

Flash forward to December 2015. My husband sat me down and told me he thought it was time I stepped out on faith and left Leapforce to pursue photography. I shared with him some of my fears. What if I let go of that paycheck I could count on and no one hired me? What if people decided I wasn’t worth it? He didn’t flinch. He told me he felt like it was time. Here I was again, in front of God, but with a different question. Why didn’t I feel peace about this the way Anthony did? Why didn’t I feel like I knew what direction my life was taking? After talking to other family members about my situation, I made the decision to quit Leapforce. It was extremely difficult. Anyone who knows me well knows that I am crazy about financial stability. 

It was in the months to come that God revealed to me that Anthony had helped me make the right decision (one day I will write about my growth in allowing Anthony to help me). The stress of three jobs was really more than I thought, and even though I added another child to the homeschool craziness, other things fell into place. My God showed me throughout last year that even though I may not be sure of the path, He always knows where I am going. When my confidence in myself fails, He is there to remind me that I am His child and He cares about the direction of my life. 

I have slowly come to terms with not knowing where my life is headed. It has become an adventure to me to see what will be behind the next bend in the road. I have stopped looking at not being in the classroom or getting to coach as “losses.” I still get to teach, just in a difference capacity. I get to see the results of all the long hours of coaching as I interact with former players through photography. (It is amazing to photograph so many of their growing families!) God didn’t take those things away from me. He just had something else for me to do. Who knows? He might pull me back into the classroom or onto the basketball court one day. For right now, I am learning to enjoy the journey no matter where it might lead.

I'm really thirsty

I really like a challenge. I am very competitive (although maybe not quite as competitive as my wife), and I don't like to lose. I like a challenge when playing sports or playing a game. If I am playing basketball and teams are being selected, be sure to put me on the team that is the underdog. I find little satisfaction in being part of the team that "should" win. I want the challenge of being part of the team that has to give all it has to even compete. That is fun to me. For games and stuff like that, it's a blast.

But then there's real life. In real life, I have no interest in being challenged for the most part. Sure, there are times where I have to solve a problem or figure out how to get something to work. Those opportunities are exciting. If I can make it like an algebraic expression and solve for X, I'm gonna be all over that.

The things I don't like are circumstances that I can't control. That's not easy. For example: A relative is ill. Stuff at work is not going how we want it to. People are talking bad about us for no reason. That stuff is for the birds. Why would I want that for myself or anyone? That's all bad stuff. I want my real life to be easy and fun and enjoyable. But guess what...that's not always real life.

Real life is tough. The Bible even tells us that if we are Christians things won't be a breeze. In fact, it says life will be downright difficult at times. I've thought about this a lot the last year or two. I have heard this song (at the top) a number of times and feel like I can relate to it. I love one of the lines toward the end: "What if my greatest disappointments or the aching of this life, is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can't satisfy."

Stop and think for a moment. What if...

For some reason as I am typing this I have so many thoughts going through my head I feel like I could write a book just on this topic. But I know there are a couple points I want to put out there to ponder.

Ultimately, we need to get to a place in our lives where we have a "thirst this world can't satisfy." If we are feeling good about life and loving every second and just going about our merry way, will we ever get to that place? It's a serious thing to consider.

One other thing that is on my mind is the question of what is good for us and what is bad for us. In light of my previous question, I tend to think that our definition of what is bad for us may differ from God's definition of what is bad for us. Don't misunderstand me here. One thing I believe that the Bible teaches is that God will at times discipline (for lack of a better word) us if we stray from the path He has for us. I believe that is what a loving Father would do to bring His children back to the right place. (In my view this is different than punishment as the Bible also teaches us that there is no more condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.) But separately, I think sometimes things happen in our lives that may even be caused by God that we would consider to be bad for us, mainly because they are trying and tough to handle. But here is the question...if something happens in our lives that causes us to turn to Him and seek His face more than before, could we possibly as Christians define that as a bad thing? I know it's difficult because we can't see the whole picture, but we need to remember that, no matter the circumstances, being close to Jesus and glorifying Him is our purpose here.

That concludes the post, really, but I just want to add a footnote of sorts. Remember that I am just typing my thoughts on life. I may be wrong on things, but I may be right. I am just going through life reflecting and trying to figure this stuff out, just like everyone else. Feel free to comment a question or observation even if you disagree with something I said. You won't hurt my feelings. I appreciate dialogue.

Loving People More than my Devils...

I bet the title of this blog threw a few people for a loop! I am sure some just wanted to read to find out why I love my Devils! You may have noticed by now that I have changed my background to what some know as a March Madness tournament bracket. For some it brings shouts of joy and for others it brings cries of defeat. Some wives enjoy the excitement while others have their bags packed to move out until after April 1st. During the month of March, I live in a house divided. The Straightforward Dad is a die hard Kentucky Wildcat fan while I bleed Duke Blue Devil blue. (If you don't know why this is a bad thing, check out this video .) We knew going into our marriage that this was a union made in basketball hades, but we felt we could make it work. Thankfully, we have had divine help as well! We definitely could not have built the marriage we have on our own!

I won't go into all the interesting conversations and basketball moments that the Straightforward Dad and I have had, but we have both had our ups and downs. However, the Lord has (and I know some people think that our Savior doesn't mess with such little life details--I DO) kept the Devils and the Wildcats from playing one another since we have been married. For those doubters--that will be 8 years in May. For two huge programs like that not to have run into each other in 8 years is incredible. Yes, we count our blessings in our family.

As many of you know, last year my beloved Devils won it all. Once again, I think the Lord knew that for my pregnant self, it was necessary for at least one of my children to be born in a year where they were National Champions. I was set for a repeat as they danced their way into the the Sweet 16 this year. It was there that they had their toes stomped on by an inferior Arizona team. I went to bed at halftime with my boys in the lead by like 4. In the morning, I woke up to the Straightforward Dad telling me that, not only had they lost, they had lost by more than I would have imagined. I have to admit that after he left for work, my heart ached. As I was about to be on the verge of tears (as I always get when they lose) and that sinking feeling was creeping into my stomach, I felt like God kind of slapped me in the back of the head (A little like NCSI's Gibbs does to DiNozzo all the time). I begin to wonder. . .what if I had a heart for people like I have heart for Duke basketball? What if my heart ached for people in need or those who were truly hurting as much as it ached right now? Here I was about to shed tears over ONE basketball game when there were people all around me going through much worse. . .or even worse, when there are people on their way to a very real Hell!

From that moment forward, I have made it a daily goal to love people more. I have tried to do something each day to help someone in need by lifting them up in prayer, offering a kind word, or by offering some assistance. I used to believe that nothing good came out of a Blue Devil loss for me. I know that they learned something from each of their losses, as I am sure Coach K would rip them to shreds at the practice following the loss. What did I get out of their loss? Nothing but a yucky, sad feeling. This time, something good did come out of it! I was able to identify a part of my life that was not what it should be.

Do I still love my Blue Devils? Absolutely! Yet, I have realized that there are some things that are more important than basketball. Basketball isn't immortal--people are! We all live forever. We have to make a choice about where we will spend eternity. Once we make our choice, why would we sit around in a world that is hurting and not offer them a better eternity?

I hope that this will inspire you to get out and love on someone today. I hope that you will choose to put your love to good use!

P.S. For all those who don't know, the Straightforward Dad's team has made it to the Final Four. If they win it all this year it will be pretty neat since my team won last year. Don't ever tell him I said that though! :)