encouragement lasts

I started playing soccer from day 1 of whatever age you could start playing as a kid. Not to brag, but I was pretty good. Especially during middle school, I called the shots as a sweeper back on defense. I didn't mess around on the field.

Things changed my freshman year. Honestly... I all the sudden sucked at soccer. I got hardly any playing time. I couldn't run for an extended period of time before I lost my breath, unable to exert any more effort. It didn't take much for me to start getting down on myself for my lack of skill.

Then there was this one game. I was a different player out there. I looked up, I communicated with my teammates, I handled the ball well. I knew what I was doing out there on that field. I could tell my teammates were surprised. Who is this kid all the sudden? I was on fire, and I could feel it. Everything clicked. Things were different. After the game no one came up to me and said anything. At that point, I didn't need them to. I was just on a high from the game.

The next day at school, things started to wear off. I was an ordinary, average kid again. I did okay at school, but soccer wasn't my thing anymore. Maybe it was a phase that lasted up til 9th grade. I had no idea what was going to hit me...

My coach was also my math teacher. He came up to me in math class privately and told me, "You looked good out there yesterday."

As I write this the tears begin to flow. What Mr. Stevens said changed my world. Before I was this no-good soccer player with nothing to offer on the field. After he encouraged me, I could have climbed Mt. Everest in less than 40 minutes. Those simple words made such an impact on my life.

Lesson - compliment someone tomorrow. Encourage the mess out of them. Or, as God says, "Encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness" (Hebrews 3:13). Sin has a way of tricking you into believing that you are less than desirable. This is crap, because God has made us because He delights in us. As David would say, "He brought me out into a spacious place; he rescued me because he delighted in me" (Psalm 18:19)