I’m grateful that I hear from my daughter, who lives in another state, most every day. If she can’t call, then she’ll email or text. This morning, via email, she told me how last night’s high school baseball game—which went on longer than I could stay awake—devolved into an awful display of unrestrained behavior directed at the umpire by the head coach and many of the parent-spectators. Evidently, when all was finally said and done, it was my grandson-the-catcher who was the peacemaker amidst the brouhaha. He had managed to get the rest of the team to settle down enough to continue the game.
Learning that my grandson had risen to the occasion to squelch the uprising made me extremely proud. There is just so much anger everywhere, it seems. He’d gotten things back on track by having his teammates get back to their positions and warming up a freshman pitcher who’d pitched just once before. He even got the umpire to calm down. The game continued.
After the game, my daughter saw the umpire walk over to my grandson to shake his hand. Despite losing the game, my grandson won the respect of others, and that’s vastly more important. I’m grateful he’s learning life lessons out on the field, and that there’s more to life than just winning. I’m grateful he’s developing into a leader.
Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. ~1 Timothy 4:12
