Yesterday I had an absolutely great time coaching my youngest child, CA, on his 5-6 year old basketball team. A lot of years had passed since I was the coach of one of my kid’s sports teams. I started coaching my older children, Bre and Chuckie, when they were around CA’s age. I was their coach in soccer, basketball, and football for many years. I remembered how much joy I got out of coaching them and their teammates. It was something I enjoyed doing and wanted to do with CA. But I almost let the busyness of our lives and all kinds of excuses prevent me from even pursuing an opportunity to coach youth sports. Jen noticed several months ago that even though I seemed content something was missing. She knew I loved coaching and encouraged me to ignore all the excuses and reasons why not to and just go do it. So I contacted the organization, signed up as a volunteer coach, got my training and there I was last night at the first practice. Reflecting back on that practice there were a couple of things which stood out to me that I want to focus on in this blog.

The first thing is, we have enough time in our day to accomplish the things we are called to do. If you are like me you sometimes feel there are not enough hours in the day or days in the week to get everything done that you “want” to get done. We feel overwhelmed by our jobs, taking care of the home, making it to meetings and practices, getting home to catch the game or our favorite TV show, etc. etc. We put so much on our plates that we feel at times like we can’t breathe. But the key there is “we” are putting these things on our plates. We are allowing ourselves to become overwhelmed by the busyness of our lives. God has given us enough time in the day to accomplish his plan for our lives, we just have to strip away some things.

I can speak directly to my life on this one and how I found myself trying to juggle so many things and I felt so busy but yet I felt so incomplete. How can I have all this stuff going on and be a part of all these different things and still feel like I’m not accomplishing what He has called me to do? Aren’t I supposed to feel fulfilled because I’ve filled my plate with all these things to do? Isn’t that what we all are supposed to be doing? Isn’t that the key to success? In the rush to take care of all these details and handle all the things we’ve put on our plates have we missed the most important things?

That leads me to the second thing that stood out to me at practice, the joy and enthusiasm of a child. Have we as adults forgotten what it’s like to be a child? In our efforts to be successful, to make it big, to make our mark in the world did we forget how to enjoy life? Watch children and see the overwhelming joy they find in some of the simplest things. Their minds are wide open and they see every minute of every day as an opportunity to learn something new, to play, to laugh, to just enjoy their lives. How can we as adults get back to that?

I can tell you that if I had continued to let the traffic, work, other commitments, etc. absorb my mind and my time I would have missed out on a great opportunity with my son. I would have missed out on the ability to help teach and mold him and his teammates through sports. Being able to help young children achieve a goal that seems completely daunting to them is a special thing. Showing a child that although that rim looks very high to them, they can find the strength to get that ball over it and into the net. Teaching a kid how to kick that soccer ball into the net and seeing the complete enjoyment they get when they do it. Those moments are priceless and when we can do them with our own children, they are even better. As Psalms 127:3 (NLT) says, “Children are a gift from the Lord; they are a reward from him.”

How can we get back to feeling like we just got the ball over the rim and into the net for the first time? How can we regain the enthusiasm of a child?

Here’s how. If you are feeling overwhelmed or like you are missing out on life, your action step for today is take a serious look at all the things you are giving your time to. What do you have going on in your life that is preventing you from enjoying the life that God has blessed you with? What have you passed up or put on the back burner to do later because you are too busy? Even though you know deep inside God has called you to do it.  Now find things that you can cut out or cut back on and fill that space with those things you’ve put on the back burner, for me that was coaching youth sports.

We are on this earth for a finite amount of time and our God placed us here to be a blessing to others. We cannot be that blessing to others, utilizing the talents and gifts He’s blessed us with, if we continue to wear ourselves down with things and stuff that don’t help us to become who He calls us to be. It’s time for a change! Time to enjoy the blessed life you have! No matter your situation or circumstance there is still enjoyment you can find out of life! Just look at the children!

Truth in Love! ~ Chuck