A Question to Ask When You Compete

Below is a guest post from Ryan Kendall:

“There are many thoughts that go through a Christian athlete or coach’s mind during competition. I can remember many times after losses as a coach, I felt about as low as any time in my life. I can also remember the first college game I coached and how nervous I was, not knowing what to expect from my team…from our opponents…even myself. Often times, our focus is on things we can’t control or things that, in the long run, don’t matter.

This was the first year my 6th grade daughter had the opportunity to run track. Now, I’ve coached track for several years so I have a great interest in it, but I was never any good at it. In fact, I only ran track one year. That’s right, it only took me one season to realize my gifts were in other areas. My wife on the other hand, ran track in high school and was good enough to garner a track scholarship to college. With these facts in mind, my hope was that my daughter took more after her mother in this area than she did after me.

Soon after her first race, I was surprised to see how much she took after her mom. She surprised us all with her ability and even more, her drive. Turns out, she’s a very tough runner.

I was able to go to most of her meets and talk with her before her race as well as run back and forth on the field as she ran, offering her encouragement and any other tidbits that might be helpful. Read More