I love sports and especially enjoy watching young kids compete. I have had the privilege of coaching hundreds of kids on dozens of different teams through the years. I have had the thrill of watching kids develop from such little experience that they could hardly dribble a basketball to such advanced skills that they competed for state championships.

Having said that, it has always hurt me whenever I watched coaches screaming at their kids for some mistake, be it real or imagined. I have even seen coaches publicly humiliate a young boy or girl for something as simple as missing a free throw. This disappointment I felt for the kids when so mistreated helped frame my coaching to focus more on the effort, rather than a the specific outcome of a shot or pass or a particular play that was being run. Instead, I always tried to encourage the boys and girls to learn how to correctly play the sport and to then focus on their best effort, rather than the result of a missed shot or lost game.

I found that one of the most successful things I could do was get them together at the very next practice following a game and let them know what they did well and what they could work on to make them even better. If you can imagine in your mind's eye a team of 8 and 9 year-old girls seated on the floor in a circle, with me standing in the middle of their group, then you will begin to get the picture. I can remember going over each girl's game with their big eyes fastened on me as I told them in front of the entire team the very things they they did well in that game, and some of the things that they might work on for the next game.

This simple method seemed to light a fire under the girls (and boys) for a very understandable reason: We thrive on encouragement! In a world that seems to pick apart and magnify each failure, such encouragement is like a refreshing rain upon a drought-stricken crop. Praise and encouragement, when done from pure motives, can lift a person's crushed spirit and change a seeming failure into a smashing success. And it has the effect of properly building an important self-esteem that has benefits far beyond the playgrounds of our youth.

When you think about it, this is the very thing that God does for us. He tells us that He wants our best efforts in carrying out His directions, and that He will then take care of the rest. Imagine what it will be like on the Day of Judgment when we will all appear before our Creator to give an account of our deeds while living on this earth. Imagine what it will be like, knowing full well that we have fallen short so many times, but then hearing the words, "Well done!'

Now please don't get me wrong. If we have not lived our lives for Him, if we have not repented and had our sins washed away, or if we should simply give up short of the goal, we will not hear those words of encouragement and praise. But, if we are in Christ, if we are walking in the light as He is in the light, and if we will give our best, we will hear those words. It is what we all should be living for, isn't it?

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.

II Timothy 2:15, RSV

His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’

Matthew 24:21, ESV 

If these thoughts have helped you in some small way, won't you share them with someone else that you believe will benefit from them? Perhaps a word of encouragement will inspire them to do their best for the One who is fully deserving of that effort.