PARADIGM SHIFT

• Love.  Show love for those you know, and those you don’t.
• Joy. Take joy in the achievements of your child, his or her teammates, and their opponents, no matter how small.
• Peace. Allow peace to override the “heat of the game”.
• Patience.  Players and officials will not always make the play or call you think is best…but they probably thought it was the best one at the time, so it’s OK.
• Kindness. Not everyone will always do it right – they might need better training, or they might be doing their best.
• Goodness. Players don’t always see the “big picture”. Draw them a circle that draws them in.
• Faithfulness.  Be true to your convictions.
• Gentleness. Be fair in talking about others. If it’s not nice, don’t say it.
• Self-Control. Do not allow outside influences to affect your actions.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self‑control.  Against such things there is no law.  Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires.  Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.

~ Galatians 5:22-25 ~

- A part of the CLAY Team Sports Ministry Christlike Athletics Handbook

Fall: Week Three

Blessed Are Those Who Mourn:

Beatitudes II – (Matthew 5:3-10)

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.”

– Matthew 5:4 (NIV)

When you are in a time of mourning, the last thing that you feel is blessed. But Jesus’ ministry was all about the oppressed, the marginalized, and the broken. However, the American church of today has largely lost sight of this. We have people hurting sitting right next to us in our church pews, and we do nothing to comfort them. And that doesn’t even begin to paint the picture outside our church walls. David Kinnaman points out in his book unChristian that many people outside the Church have very negative feelings toward Christians because of how we simply don’t practice what we preach. Jesus was a radical dude, and we need to live out the radical kind of love and compassion that He exemplified through His life.

The radical love of God can mend any broken heart, no matter how deep the scars. I’ve had my fair share of shadowy valleys in my short life, and every time I seem to hit rock bottom, I find myself digging into the Word and crying out to my Heavenly Father for comfort. And the truly amazing thing is that no matter how far I fall, He catches me every time. A couple verses that I have found comfort in include James 1:2-4 and John 16:33. They both talk about how the trials and tribulations of life help us to grow as people, and if you are hurting for any reason today, I invite you to open up the good ol’ Bible and just let your Father speak to you.

No matter how dark the shadows around you are, God’s unending agape love will light up your night, and His love will restore your broken heart. Just seek Him and He will answer, just as Jesus reminds us: “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” (Matt 7:7)

And always remember the old Christian adage: “God is good, all the time! All the time, God is good!”