Commitment

Father's Day was this past Sunday. I was fortunate to be able to see my kids for the first time in a month. It was great to be around them. I love hearing Kylie's passion when she talks about her friends and the things she is involved with. I loved being able to comfort Brady in the middle of the night when he woke up with a bad dream. I absolutely love how affectionate Katelyn is. I think she said "I love you daddy" and gave me hugs about 50 times in a 24 hour period of time. I love that Marisa got to come back with me to Montgomery. I did some research for her arrival. I watched Twilight and New Moon. You might find it hard to believe but neither of those films would be my first choice at the RedBox. I look forward to diving in to our relationship and studying her while I have the next 3 weeks with her.

The focus of this post, however, is my dad.

I listen to KSBJ when I am at work in my office. I am grateful that I have a job that doesn't require me to be in there all the time. When I am in there, I get online and listen to KSBJ which is the christian radio station out of Houston. I think it gives me comfort to listen to that station while my family is still living in that area. On that radio station today they were involved in their annual share-a-thon. The share-a-thon is a fund raising effort to take care of needs but also the dreams of the station. They made a statement that kids have a tendency to be givers if their parents are givers. I think the same can be said about other attributes as well. The one that is on my heart right now is commitment.

My dad worked that same desk job in claims and customer service for 40 years. I can remember he had opportunities to move up in the company but he recognized his strengths and the extra stress it would put on him so he stayed committed to his position. I can remember him coming home tired at times and frustrated at times, but I can never remember him truly saying a bad word about his company. He lived commitment. I can also remember another situation when I was about 5th or 6th grade when dad and I picked up one of my brothers at the school after a long basketball road trip. My bro got in the car a proceeded to complain about his lack of playing time and starting bad-mouthing the coach a little bit. I will never forget my dad turning to him in a calm voice saying, "I don't ever want to hear you say another bad word about your coach...You deal with it." He wanted my brother to be committed in good times and bad.

I hear more and more stories about a lack of commitment in society. Just today I was involved with two.

Marisa and I were eating lunch at Faulkner. A young camper's mom came up to Coach Sanderson who was at our table and said, "I am taking my daughter home, she is sore and tired". Coach Sanderson said, "that's funny, she was just in the gym dancing last session". Mom told him that her daughter just needed some rest. Coach was frustrated that with one phone call, this kid's mom dropped everything and catered to her whim. I think if I would have called my dad to come pick me up he would have said, "I'll come get you when camp is over.

The second was from an AAU coach who has spent a couple of years with a kid in his program and spent countless hours away from his family getting her better at no charge to her to the point where she is a top guard in the state that she plays in. The coach has another player who is getting alot of recruiting attention right now. The first kid and her parents called the coach and said they are leaving to another team because their kid has been ignored and mistreated by the coach. They are crippling their child for life. One might suggest that it is just summer basketball. I would suggest that a child is a parent's most captive audience regardless of how small or large the decision is. If being a princess instead of a queen is mistreatment then they are probably right, she is being mistreated. The coach was unbelievably committed the development of the kid and the kid bolts...unbelievable.

I am grateful to my dad now for alot of things. I didn't appreciate him at the time. Hebrews 12 suggests that no discipline is pleasant at the time, but we have developed a friendship as I have gotten older that is priceless. I am grateful that I will be able to pass commitment on to my kids and players, and I believe that they will have a competitive advantage over the kids who are enabled and not committed.


Thanks Dad

Blessings,

Reed