Little League first games in the book

The first games for my sons and daughter's teams are in the books. One thing that I am excited about is that the schedule has worked out so that I not only can manage my sons' team but also I will only miss about a half hour of one of my daughter's games this year. Great opportunities to spend time with some awesome kids and their families. The other cool thing is that both jerseys are red so I dont have to get a bunch of different shirts and a worry about multiple hats!
Both teams are 1-1. My daughters team, the Dolphins, (I know that strikes fear into an opponent) lost a heartbreaker the first game to an in park rival but then went on the road and beat a team that was picked to be quite good 20-8 on their field. They are really looking like a team!
The boys' team (Reds) did kind of the opposite. We went on the road for the first game and managed to scratch out 6 runs on 4 hits and sneak out with the win. The second game was a 17-15 loss on our field. We got the lumber out but too wany walks and a couple key errors did us in. I was so proud of the way they kept fighting back, three innings in a row, and almost pulled it off. They are learning and accomplished my goal that I put before them: get better as a team each game. We are young and without a major pitching ace and I'm sure be in a lot of these scraps. My prayer is that I keep a healthy balance between competeitveness and witness. I love coaching, and I love baseball. I love being at the ballpark period. Counting a trip to Wrigley on Thursday I'll be making at least 5 trips to a perk. And no one has called for an ump yet!! Good times.

Finding purpose in 2 conversations

Two things I was reminded of this evening while at wrestling camp:

1. You often never get to the things that you plan
2. We need to be ready at all times for an outreach conversation

I had planned to sit back, watch the boys wrestle, and read/ take a few notes from one of my current books. Turns out, that lasted for about 5 minutes. I had one conversation regarding the prioirty that sports (specifically wrestling at this time) has in our lives. I was able to talk about how we have established church as a priority the majority of Folkstyle tournaments are out of the question for us, because they are on Sunday. Not because wrestling or a tournament on Sunday is necissarily a bad or sinful thing; but because if we chose that we would be choosing to miss our worship service for approx. 8-10 weeks in a row. Good conversation.

Next thing I know, a dad from Little League (LL) slides up next to me. We spent the next 40 minutes or so just talking LL, kids, life stuff in general. No blatant spiritual connection; just getting to know one another better. This is a man who I have talked to several times in the past few years. Never worked directly with him, kids never on same LL team, or anything, just an aquaintance. It struck me that it might not continue to be that way, God seemed to show me that he may be someone I will have coninued contact with. Time to help scatter seed, throw a little water and aee what grows under the direction of the Holy Spirit. It really is fun when God lets you in on the things that He is working out in other people.