Things definitely change over time. After having been a teacher and coach for 15 years, I look back at what was important to me then and now and it is vastly different. As we get older and have a family, mature as a Christian, and come into our own, we start to realize that the things we once thought were the most important aren’t as important as we once believed. While they are still a big part of our life, which is just fine, they aren’t our #1 focus anymore. When I first started coaching, winning ballgames was my top priority. It was what I identified myself with. As I have gotten older, I don’t like to win any less. In fact, I hate losing as much as I ever did. I just understand that there are other things that are more important. When I have to answer to God one of these days, He will not ask me what my Win/Loss record was. But, He will ask me how many souls I brought to Christ. He will ask me what I did with the opportunity to influence so many teenagers every single day. I hope that I make the most of that time that I have with them. I hope that I can say I poured everything I had into them. I hope that I can say that I was a positive role model for them and I also taught them some baseball along the way.
Sports are great teaching tools. They teach us so many things. They teach hard work, team work, dedication, and a lot of other life long lessons. But, in my position, they are also my platform to influence so many young men each and every day. I hope that when they see me, they not only see a baseball coach, but a Christian man that loves them and would do anything to help them and make them better young men. Everyone will influence people every day. Will that influence be a positive or negative one? Which way will you influence people? You have a platform of some sort. No matter what you do on a day to day basis, you have an influence on people. That may be in the grocery store. It may be at the bank. It doesn’t matter where, you will impact people. A simple “Hi” might be the only positive thing that someone has happen to them all day long. Will that be us that gives them that positivity? Strive to be the bright spot in people’s day every day. It’s like I tell my players all the time, we can control two things every day, “attitude and effort”. I want to make sure my attitude and effort have a positive impact on people daily. Will yours?