When I met my husband in college, he loved basketball too of course. He loved to play and watch it. I was bored with it all. Once we got married, I told him when we had kids I would take the time to learn the game and he could be my teacher. That way I would know how to cheer appropriately for my team. LOL.We have been a basketball family for 6 years now... well with me included this time. I love to watch my boys play and for the most part now I understand the game. This month marked my youngest son's last season of high school basketball. It was sad to watch him finish his last game. He has been a super star on the court.
This month is March Madness. For those who aren't sports lovers, it's BASKETBALL month. There are games going on all the time. Everyone is trying to guess which college team will win the championship. I'm still not into watching it on television so much, but I know enough basketball lingo to hold a decent (sports intelligent) conversation with my boys... I think. Recently I ran across an article about an incredible basketball legend I had to share with you. His life is marked by the kind of character every man should possess. His motivation and call to live at a greater level wasn't from what you would expect. He was inspired by simple words scribbled on a piece of paper that rested inside his wallet as a daily reminder.Wow! What a powerful message for all of us! That piece of wisdom was there for almost 90 years as a reminder to him. What a legacy! This reminds me of the credit card commercial that says... "What's in your wallet?" If you could hold a paper full of encouraging words to inspire you for a lifetime in your purse or wallet, what would it say? Be encouraged as you read these words of wisdom.
Living to leave a legacy,
Julie
Why I keep this late basketball coach's
7-point creed in my wallet
(By Paul Batura)
“Coach Wooden” as he was known, has been gone
for almost 9 years. When he died in June of 2010 at the age of 99, the
highly-acclaimed basketball genius was lauded and feted as a sage of the sport,
and rightly so.
But even nearly a decade following his death,
the remarkable life of John Wooden can still teach us, and especially now in
the midst of culture’s madness. Up until his death, the collegiate hall
of fame coach kept a folded-up index card in his wallet. On it was a
handwritten 7-point creed that his father had given him as a graduation gift
from elementary school.
How instrumental of a role did that small piece
of cardstock play in the life of UCLA’s coach? According to friend and
NBA executive Pat Williams, it was instrumental. “I believe,” wrote Williams, “the
character and achievements of John Wooden can largely be traced to [that] piece
of paper his father gave him on the day he graduated from the eighth grade at a
little country grade school in Centerton , Indiana
Almost 100 years later, as political, economic,
sociological and even spiritual battles rage white hot, we would be wise to
also heed the adages of this 7-point creed:
1. Be True to Yourself.
Are you living someone else’s plan for your
life? Nothing can stifle creativity like conformity and uniformity. What’s
“your thing” – your unique ability? Nobody is here by accident. Everybody was
placed on earth for a purpose. Be comfortable in your own skin and chase your
dream.
2. Make each day your masterpiece.
It almost sounds like a cliché, but everybody
has the same amount of time each day (24 hours, 1440 minutes). Do you treat it
like a rare gift? On average, over 150,000 people die every day. Don’t
take these hours for granted. The late Bil Keane, creator of the Family Circus
cartoon, once poignantly observed, “Yesterday is history, tomorrow is
mystery – but today is a gift, that’s why we call it ‘the present.’”
Don’t waste the day.
3. Never leave until tomorrow what can
be done today.
Charles Dickens once called procrastination the “thief
of time” – and he was right. We so often think tomorrow is going to
be an extension of today, but it’s usually not. Rather than treat time like a
blank check, think about it in finite terms – because today is all we’ve got.
4. Help others.
Narcissism is destructive. Care about
others and practice blessed self-forgetfulness. As Dr. Tim Keller says, “Don’t
think less of yourself – just think about yourself less.” Call a
friend, visit someone in the hospital, pick up trash in your neighborhood or
volunteer in your community.
5. Drink deeply from good books,
especially the Bible.
The late pastor Dr. Adrian Rogers used to say, “What
goes down in the well comes up in the bucket.” Be mindful of what
you’re reading and watching. The apostle Paul probably put it best of all when
he advised, “Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right,
whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything
is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things and the God of peace
will be with you.”
6. Study friendship and make it a fine
art.
It’s been said we become the product of the five
people we spend the most time with. If that’s the case, are you picking your
friends or letting your friends pick you? The popular writer C.S. Lewis
wrote about the origin of enjoyable company. “Friendship ... is born at the
moment,” Lewis noted, “when one man says to another ‘What! You too? I thought
that no one but myself . . .’” If you want to have good friends, take the
time to be a good friend.
7. Pray for guidance and count and give
thanks for your blessings every day. Cultivating a discipline of prayer and a spirit of gratitude will
transform your life. It was Albert Einstein who once opined, “There are only
two ways to live your life: as though nothing is a miracle, or as though
everything is a miracle.” We are living in an age of daily miracles and
many of us don’t even realize it.
As the curtain fell on his near century-long
life, Coach Wooden reflected that while he tried to live up to his father's
creed, he had nevertheless fallen short, saying he was more like the guy who
once said, "I am not what I ought to be; Not what I want to be; Not
what I am going to be, But I am thankful that I am better than I used to
be."
A devout Christian, Wooden saw basketball for
what it was – a game that pointed to something of greater significance in his
life. "I have always tried to make it clear that basketball is not the
ultimate. It is of small importance in comparison to the total life we live.
There is only one kind of life that truly wins, and that is the one that places
faith in the hands of the Savior."
A slip of paper with Wooden’s wisdom is now in
my wallet, and it likewise reminds me that all the madness of this world is
manageable – because all the madness is ultimately managed by a God who loves
each one of us.
Paul J. Batura is vice president of
communications at Focus on the Family
