"I Simply Need You To Grow"

You cannot grow if you are not pushed outside your comfort zone. Maybe it is more like, what doesn’t challenge you, doesn’t change you. Or, maybe it is, God leads you to where He needs you. I have definitely come to realize, that all three of these are the same in one.

Being a head coach of any high school sport, was never on my bucket list...never, ever did I see myself as a head coach, it is something that I just never desired for myself or for my family. But little did I know, God had other plans for me, plans for me to grow, to develop my character, to ultimately (hopefully) impact those student athletes I coach.

Here is what I know...Coaching is hard. Really hard. Coaching is so “mind-consuming” even when I tried not to think about volleyball, I was still thinking about it. It is hard to find that balance between coaching and family. My own children’s activities took the back burner. It was hard to find the balance between coaching and teaching and tech integration. My patience needed to be developed. Coaching. Is. Hard. However, Proverbs 3:5 states, “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.” I had to trust God, many times I found myself praying to make wise decisions. I didn’t just have to learn to trust God, but I also had to learn to trust myself.

There is always going to be an X and O coach better than me. However, I am more than Xs and Os...my hope is that my players saw my servant leadership, they saw that I care, and ultimately saw that I believe in each and everyone of them. Somedays, I would walk through gym doors with selfish ambition and my heart wasn’t filled with gratitude. I needed to remind myself that walking through the door requires love, it requires joy, it requires me to fill my heart with the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness and faithfulness (Galatians 5:22).

We see superheros as extraordinary. We trust them to save the day. We know they are committed to helping others. But when they take off their capes and uniforms, they are ordinary people who do extraordinary things. Yet, I know that God takes ordinary people and does extraordinary things through them. So instead of being the superhero--yes, I thought I needed to save the day--I just need to be ordinary and let God do His work through me. I have one chance to make a difference. One chance to say “I believe in you” when it really matters. One chance to be an encourager. One chance to truly serve others. How can I take this one chance that I am given, and make a difference. God may give me multiple “one chances”, but there is never an opportunity to get that one missed chance back. Each one of us has been God-given talents and gifts, our gift back to Him is how we use our gifts. This is illustrated in 1 Peter 4:10 -- “Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms.” And through this all, you know what, God’s “superheros” showed up when I needed them most. From the encouraging texts, emails, notes, cards, suppers for our family, to helping with our kids, God was showing up all over this season, reminding me that He makes the ordinary, extraordinary aka “superheros”.

Be Joy. Be blessed. Be Thankful. I started out my blog with this is hard, and being thankful sometimes is a close second to “this is hard.” Joy was my chosen “word of the year” because I knew I would be coaching volleyball. I knew I would have to find joy, every practice, every match, every late night away from home. No matter the day, through all the adversity, through all the excitement, I found joy. I wanted our team to realize how incredibly blessed we are and we need to be thankful. And now that the season is over, I will continue to find joy, each and every day.

If God didn’t push me through this head coaching door, if He didn’t take me outside my comfort zone, and if I wasn’t willing to let God lead me where He needed me, I would not have had the opportunity to grow in character. I needed a whole lot of trust and patience to let God do His will through me. And as God was building me from the inside out, I hope that I was planting seeds of joy, love, thankfulness, and finally servant leadership to all those around me.