In This World

This morning, as I've been getting ready for my day, I've been thinking of the song with the words:

"In this world you will have troubles, but I'm leaving you my peace, That where I am you may also be."

I think that I have been living in a bubble the last 10 years or so. Since I no longer work in the mainstream, my life revolves around my church and my church family. Even now, with my kids being in a charter school, I am finding that the moms who get in and get involved are Christian ladies. It seems like I have very little, or very limited contacted with "The World."

I'm finding that where my world intersects with The World is soccer. You can really meet some interesting people in the world of soccer. I am amazed at how many people allow soccer to consume them. Even though, as I see how good my daughter is becoming, I can totally understand the tendency.

My frustration with soccer lies in the fact that, at least in our area, Sunday is not sacred when it comes to setting up games. Not even Sunday morning is sacred. For the last year or so that Daria has been playing throughout the year, and thus a little more competitively, we have had coaches who have respected our decision to keep Sunday mornings devoted to God. In fact, I have felt truly supported in that regard. At times, they have even bent over backwards trying to reschedule games so that Daria could be involved.

For the last month or two, Daria has been playing with a coach that I have been a little nervous about. His reputation regarding his temper has not been very good. Tim and I talked about it long and hard that we would need to stand firm if there were Sunday morning games. A week or so ago, I was surprised to hear this coach ask us to consider allowing Daria to play in the one Sunday morning game that was in our current schedule. (Personally, I was feeling pretty fortunate that it was only one game.) Because I am so intimidated by this coach, I told him we would talk about it and let him know. Really, I was just passing the buck for Tim to handle.

So, Tim handled it last night. I'm not sure the coach was terrible happy with us. He sort of made it sound like the team had gone above and beyond to reschedule games so that Daria could be there, so maybe we could at least compromise. But then he went on to lay on the compliments. I feel bad that he might be put out with us, but this morning, as I thought about it, I was reminded of why we hold true to our values.

Long after Daria can no longer play soccer, I pray that she will have a faith that will stand the storms of life. I am also praying that God will honor our decision to remain true to Him even in these little things. Even though Daria seems to understand, I pray that she will see the true reward of honoring God first above all. I was also reminded to continue to pray for her future coaches...that they would honor and respect our decision to put God first.

If nothing else is gained, those commitment reminders for me is enough.