Check Your Jersey.
Written by: Natasha Simon
A few weeks ago, I decided to go to my son's football practice. Well, I was kinda coaxed into coming - to keep from having two vehicles at the school. My husband has decided to help coach and we had to attend a parent's meeting afterwards to discuss fall sports, which is code for money, cheese, cheddar, stroke a check.....Okay, first of all, HIM (this is the nickname that I call him when I'm trying to remain Holy) was adamant about not coaching anymore and second, why the heck do kids have to pay to play sports??? These two issues really get me heated! You smell smoke? Yeah, that's smoke you're smelling. I'm heated! Embers are flying, so take cover. I've never wanted to cause bodily harm to my soul mate like I did when he coached our son in Pop Warner. I was destined to be portrayed on Orange Is The New Black as the crazy wife who dismembered her husband's body, with a smoothie straw and some Vicks vapor rub, then tried to glue it back together with double sided tape. Oh, the memories are coming back.....1...2...3...4....5...okay, okay, I'm good. Got lost for a few. We'll revisit the aforementioned issue on a later date.
Back to what I was saying....So, I was watching the team run the perimeter of the field and caught a glimpse of the two runners pulling up the rear. They were pretty far behind the group. Like wayyyyyy behind. My heart ached for them. I wanted desperately to jump out of the truck and trot beside them in my almost too short denim dress and Tory Burch sandals, okay, well stand next to the fence and cheer them on. But, that wasn't necessary. Their teammates stood in the gap, my son included. Their teammates encouraged them to finish the race. Even though the rest of the team had already passed the finish line, they knew that the drill wasn't over until EVERYBODY on the team crossed. If you don't win, we don't win! In life, we are always in one of these two groups! We'll either be ahead or behind. When we're behind, and times are hard, but do we have teammates who'll encourage us to not give up? Or when we're ahead, do we offer help and/or an encouraging word to our teammates? If you can't say "yes" to both questions, you may want to check your jersey, to make sure you're on the right team!