When my husband and I first began talking about if we would homeschool our children or not, his main concern was if they would be able to participate in sports. Specifically, he wanted his son to play football. I was a bit taken aback. Who cares about sports anyway? Wow…..what little things I knew about my husband as a young married woman! I soon found out just how important sports were in my husband’s life and how quickly he can pass that down to his son!
My oldest son is currently 15 and we did decide to homeschool him, even though he can’t play sports at the local public schools. While he was younger and still playing for the city teams, he tried out about every sport that was available to us. (Apparently homeschooling didn’t slow him down!) In the earlier years, he played soccer, football, baseball, basketball and tennis just to find out how much he liked them. He’s not a natural at any of them, so he’s always had to work hard to get much playing time!
As he has gotten older, his love is definitely football! This year, he is in 10th grade and able to play for a local Christian school. He has been having such a great time! It’s been a little tiring [for mom] getting him to and from each practice and game, but it is a short time in my life that I know he is greatly appreciating. He’s been making memories and learning some good lessons along the way.
As we travel around on Friday nights to all the different games, it has dawned on me how quickly he has grown up! This “little” boy of mine will be graduating from high school in 2.5 short years! (a Kleenex moment, for sure!)
Throughout the years he has learned diligence and perseverance by participating in these team sports. But, sometimes we wondered if he was learning anything at all. You see, he was a slow runner. He never really seemed to want to get anywhere very quickly. Many, many times, my husband has talked with him about trying harder, going faster and loving it a little more! Sometimes we wondered if it went in one ear and back out the other, but you know what? It didn’t. Now that he is a 10th grader, he’s matured. Suddenly he has that inner drive pushing him to the limits that we always knew he was capable of. At one game in particular, he hurt his ankle and yet he kept playing. Some may think that is a dumb idea and why would we even be proud of that? (I would’ve thought that before I was exposed to some pretty awesome sports nuts).
But…..do you want to know what it showed us?
He has the will to succeed.
He is able to push past his pain and be there for his team.
When he wants something bad enough, he can dig deep within himself and accomplish it.
This particular game, the coach was giving him some extra playing time and there was no way he was going to throw that opportunity away unless he absolutely had to. He played hard and at the end of the game, he limped off the field. He thought it was TOTALLY worth it.
This past weekend, our previously slow running son decided that he wanted to enter a 5K. I reluctantly let him, thinking that it would be a good experience, even though he’d probably not place. Well, he totally proved me wrong on that one. He walked away with a 3rd place medal for his age division and 38th overall out of 172 total runners. My husband and I were floored that our slow little runner could go fast enough to make 3rd place in the run! We were so proud of him, too (another Kleenex moment!).
It goes to show that all of his hard work in football has paid off. He still has much to learn. I love the lessons that sports has been able to teach him (but shhh, don’t tell my husband!).
Do you have any fun stories to share about lessons you or your kids have learned by playing sports? Will you leave me a comment, telling me all about them?
Get a Kleenex custom oval BOGO until 11/15/12, just use the code PLAYOFFS at checkout on the MyKleenex site. I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective, and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own. (This offer is no longer valid)
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