Dear brothers and sisters, I close my letter with these last words: Be joyful. Grow to maturity. Encourage each other. Live in harmony and peace. Then the God of love and peace will be with you. 2 Corinthians 13:11 (NLT)
Wow, last week we decided to go see the high school boys basketball team play in a Thanksgiving tournament. I haven't been to one game in two years...and now I'm at a loss for what I'm supposed to do...
I cannot sit there and watch the game...quietly...without standing...without yelling...cheering...clapping... stomping my feet...waving my arms. My daughter was embarrassed. I can remember being embarrassed when I have been next to my mom who was doing all of the above as well. By the time the game was over, I was hot, shaking and I thought my head might explode. I do have a cold/sinus thing right now, but most of it was just the stress.
What in the world am I going to do when my kids are out there? Ahhh. I cannot go and act like a total fool, my kids will hate me...but I cannot contain myself, it is just too much. I realize it is in my genes. There are coaches on all corners and we are all sports nuts. You should see my mom watch a Cardinals game. Holy Cow. It is not safe.
I love going to games, I love cheering and encouraging the kids. I wouldn't want another person yelling not-so-nice things at my child so I draw the line there. I try very hard to not say anything specific to a player, coach or ref that is not encouraging. Of course, what I may consider encouragement, a ref may not find very encouraging:) I can't stand the thought of not going because I cannot behave, but something is going to have to give before Lane starts playing. I'm not sure I will survive it game after game. I must get it together and come up with a plan and soon...Volleyball is starting!
My other problem is that I do have eight years of cheerleader in me. I loved being a cheerleader. I am an encourager at heart and I love to cheer people on. I was getting frustrated with our cheerleaders because they weren't very peppy. And of course, my thoughts were that they weren't doing their job, why aren't they cheering more, I can't even hear them, etc...well, then I looked around and but for Jay, The Quack, myself and two fellas in front of us, everyone else sat stone-faced. If I was cheering and looking up at our very solemn and sober crowd, I may lose enthusiasm too. I guess I am just not used to it.
I went over and talked to the coach's wife who did not grow up here. She said something along the lines of, I keep telling my husband that you guys went to school during the "good" times when the teams won and were competitive all the time. The crowd was fired up. People were excited. These kids don't know what that's like. Oh my, I had never thought about it that way. Maybe this crowd needs a little lesson, huh?
Last year when my nieces' basketball team was playing at state, which is a huge accomplishment for our little school, I ended up leading the crowd in cheers...I was like a wildwoman...and if myself and one other mom that was there didn't do anything, everyone just sat there staring. Wow...the other crowd was crazy wild, they were excited. Our folks just sat there. How can this be? I would never have survived as a cheerleader with a crowd this sober and depressing.
I compare this to church attendees. I lead the opening services before Sunday School. There are some mornings when I am standing up front looking out at my church family and I could swear we were attending a funeral. People, if we look like this in our safe place of worship, why, oh why would anyone want to join us? Think of people in other countries who are forbidden to worship God...what would they think/see when they walked in our churches? People excited and grateful to be in the Lord's house or a bunch of people who feel obligated to come because it is the right thing to do? It would shock them to know we are not jumping out of our skin with excitement and thankfulness because we have the freedom to worship and praise and fellowship without serious consequences...something they can only dream of. What a gift we take for granted.
I think I'll be a cheerleader for life. I'm probably that person you want to slap sometimes. I get it. And believe me, I'm not always happy and cheerful...just ask Jay or my kiddos. Every now and then, I have a bad day...it happens, but I move on and try to put it behind me. Being cheerful and encouraging someone just may be what brings another person out of a funk that day. Haven't you had that experience before? You're having the worst day or terrible 'luck' and then someone says or does the nicest thing...it was just what you needed at that moment.
I know that everyone has different talents and gifts. Sometimes I wish God would've given me the gift of a beautiful singing voice because I love, love, love to sing and it's just not pretty. Instead he has given me the gift of cheering and encouraging (or so I've been told). I'll probably be a cheerleader for life as a Bluestreak and most importantly as a Christian...but I have got to try to mold those two together at ballgames. (You know like when I'm coming unglued and look down at the bench and see three of my youth kids staring at me in shock.)
I have a little while to pull it together, to come up with some sort of technique for controlling my mouth and behavior at a ball game. My coworker suggested I videotape the games, then when I hear myself, I'll be embarrassed...there's an idea. The kids and I went to another game last week and I began the game with a bag of popcorn. There were a few times that I was spewing popcorn and choking from trying to eat and yell, it worked pretty well until the bag was empty. Looks like I may be eating a lot of popcorn in the future...and perhaps teaching the crowd a thing or two about enthusiasm...and maybe I'll start doing cheers at church to get us fired up...and maybe we'll all start acting like we're happy to be there and encourage others...
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