May means softball... not just a little softball, ALL softball ALL the time...
I am 'helping' coach two teams. My oldest daughter is catching on a 12 Under team coached by a softball masta (props to Steve Parker). I am just glad to be around a dude that knows his stuff and learn more about the game an' coaching girls at this age. The team is undefeated because of one simple thing, they listen and respond.
They listen to this guy who knows his stuff, then do their absolute best to put it down like he says. Yeah they've got talent (for the most part), yeah they've played together for a while and a lot (for the most part), BUT without listening and responding to what the coach is telling them, they will surely lose and worse not learn anything.
Night and day then to the 8 Under team that is full of little girls who are for the most part completely unaware of the game happening before them, even as the ball speeds off the bat toward them. Playing in the dirt, looking at mom & dad in the stands, picking their nose (or other places), and talking with the other little girls in the field. Try making field adjustments as a coach with this crowd. Yell as loud as you like, use the simplest terms possible, point, wave- jump up and down... maybe just maybe they look up and wonder, "What's up with that fool?"
So no wonder, as the hard corps little team with a real live pitcher ravages us, the little girl in left field cannot be reached. She's in her own world fo sho, never to be seen again. But then a miracle, as I am all but ready to start using a spot light or send up smoke singals via self-immolation, I say her name and she looks up... I tell her shift over right just enough to cover the huge hole that this next ball is gonna come down through.
SHO NUFF, she moves! SHO NUFF ball hit right to her... what was a home run slama just became a single. Crowd goes wild. Little girl smiles. She knows, she did good. Yeah they lost 10-2, so what! I reached that one kid with the concept to hear the coach, do that thing, and make the play. Now we learn'n softball.
I - and you too, my friend - are standing out in left field ~ pick'n our backside, chattin it up, try'n to look just that cool while we whine about how bored we are. You keep thinkin, "So what the board says we're losing, isn't this just a game we play'n?"
What is that out of this world coach doing over there waving at us for. What's He yellin' bout... move where? WHY? --- oh that ball, ain't comin' my way, is it? ...and what would I even do if they hit it to me? I just signed up for the uniform coach-- when do we get some snow cones...?
Get your head in the game, listen to the coach, and make some plays. Now we're learn'n some Gospel.
A.W. Tozer hit it out of the park with this one...
"Lord, teach me to listen. The times are noisy and my ears are weary with the thousand raucous sounds which continuously assault them. Give me the spirit of the boy Samuel when he said to Thee, “Speak, for thy servant heareth.” Let me hear Thee speaking in my heart. Let me get used to the sound of Thy Voice, that its tones may be familiar when the sounds of earth die away and the only sound will be the music of Thy speaking Voice. Amen."
(full bit on 'The Speaking Voice' --> here)
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