Attitude Precedes Victory
Defeat should never be a source of discouragement but rather a fresh stimulus. South
One of my favorite things about living in a small town is in getting to follow the activities of our kids, and especially in their sports. Since Happy is a close community, you quickly get to know all of the kids that participate in athletics. You also get to know the folks who work with our kids, and Happy is blessed with some of the best teachers and coaches you could ever hope to find.
This particular article is about one of our coaches. His name is Tim, but in order to protect his identity, we shall call him "Coach". "Coach" coaches girl's track and has done so for the past three years. He loves his girls and they love him as is clear from the way that they treat each other. It was about two years ago, right after our sprint team was beat in the regional finals, that I learned something really neat about this individual.
While Coach was clearly disappointed that his girls did not advance to state (you could see it on his face), some of his first comments after the race were about how the team might improve upon what they had already accomplished in order that they might go to state the next year. Since no girl's athletic team from Happy had made it to the state tournament in over thirty years, you had to admire his optimism. And, do you know what? They did go to state the very next year - in two different events!
This, in my opinion, is the way all of life should be approached. You give everything you've got in all of your important ventures. Should you fail, at least you failed while striving for greatness. Then, you learn what you can, put the defeat behind you, and immediately plan on how you will succeed the next time.
The fact is that we are here for something far greater than our physical pursuits: We are here to go to Heaven. We will fail a million times, but God will never fail us and He is on our side. Since this is an undeniable fact, why not learn what we can from our failures and then put them behind us so that we may press on to the goal!
Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. I Corinthians 9:24, NIV
