Legacy in the little things

When I was a younger man, I coached soccer. This came naturally, since I had played the game from the age of 11 until I graduated college. I was never the biggest, fastest, or most athletic - my failed 7th grade football and basketball dreams were testimony to that. But I found that soccer was a game you could become fairly effective at by studying the flow of the game and being in the right place at the right time. So when I had kids who were old enough to play, we played. I knew how to size up my players' strengths, teach them some skills, and put them in position to succeed. And we did - our teams won a lot of games. But there was more than winning and losing that came from our time on the field.

My wife ran into the mother of one of my old players at the grocery store, years after he had played for me. The talk inevitably turned to how our boys were doing by then. The player had gone on to other things, then returned to soccer at some point because he was really talented and had enjoyed it before. But he didn't stay at it long and when he quit for good, his mom had asked him why. He said it just wasn't the same as before. She asked him what he meant and he said all his new coach cared about was winning. "It was different with Coach Scott. Coach Scott loved us." And his mom agreed: "Yes Aaron, yes he did." 

I tell that story not to boast about my teams or my kids or my coaching. It was a few years of my life where we did that together and we had fun at it and it gave me time with my children. I didn't do anything special - there were a lot of coaches who knew way more about soccer than I did (and we frequently beat them anyway). The reason I tell the story is to make the point that someone is always watching. And the passion and care and spirit we bring to those everyday tasks often has more impact than how "successful" we were. 

As we wind down our conversations on Legacy, understand we are weaving the story that will outlive us, even in the little things, perhaps especially in the little things. All the more incentive to have our character shaped by the One who made us so that we reflect His image in integrity, humility, and gratitude.