Week 7 Devotion - Perseverance

Virtue: PERSEVERANCE - Refusing to give up when life gets hard

• Scripture Verse: But those who trust in the LORD will receive new strength. They will fly as high as eagles. They will run and not get tired. They will walk and not grow weak. Isaiah 40:31 (NIrV)

Bottom Line: When life seems impossible, remember what you do can help someone else’s faith.

Have you ever thrown a rock into a lake? What happens? Have you ever noticed how the rock creates a ripple effect that starts out small and moves outward? Pretty cool, right? That one small rock causes a ripple of circles that reaches far beyond where it initially landed in the water.

When it comes to facing challenges, did you ever stop to think about the fact that the way you and I choose to handle tough situations might have an impact on someone else? Let me show you what this would look like on the soccer field. Let’s say at our next game, we play a team that is really beating us. Every time they get the ball, they score. It’s bad. Really bad. How would you feel if I, your coach, just folded my arms and sat down in a lawn chair for the rest of the game? How would you feel if I put my clipboard down and just said, “You guys just finish up. We’re gonna lose anyway”?

Crazy, right? I would never do that. I know that my words from the sidelines have the power to encourage you to keep going, to keep pushing, to keep playing hard until the very end. My actions have a ripple effect—just like when a rock is thrown into the water. My yelling “you can do it,” “watch the ball,” “quick feet,” “work together”—all of those words can really make a difference as to how you guys perform on the field.

The same is true off the field. The way you and I react to tough situations—to situations where we’re tempted to give up—has the potential to affect someone else. When you and I keep going, when we keep treating others the way we want to be treated, when we keep making the wise choice—we encourage others around us to do the same. When you persevere, you have the potential to help someone else persevere as well! Your actions have a ripple effect. You can help someone else’s faith to grow too!

Week 6 Devotion - Perseverance

Virtue: PERSEVERANCE - Refusing to give up when life gets hard

• Scripture Verse: But those who trust in the LORD will receive new strength. They will fly as high as eagles. They will run and not get tired. They will walk and not grow weak. Isaiah 40:31 (NIrV)

Bottom Line: When life seems impossible, remember what others did.

So we’ve been talking about perseverance—refusing to give up when life gets hard. And while it’s really easy to decide just to give up when the going gets tough, God wants us to persevere. He doesn’t want us to throw in the towel the minute the going gets tough.

And guess what? God has been helping people persevere for a very long time. People like Gideon. We can read about him in the Old Testament—that’s the first section of the Bible. Gideon was a guy from the weakest tribe, and he was the youngest in his family when God told him to gather an army to fight the enemy. Gideon thought that God had to be kidding! But he chose to listen to God. And once Gideon had gathered the army, God told him to narrow it down to just a few hundred men. Gideon thought it was the craziest plan ever! If it were me, I might have given up. But Gideon didn’t. Instead he chose to persevere.

He knew God was with him. Though it might have seemed impossible, Gideon and many, many others that we read about in the Bible, kept praying. They kept doing the right thing. They persevered.
Hebrews 12:1 (NIrV) says, “A huge cloud of witnesses is all around us”—meaning, since we’ve seen so many great examples of people who never gave up, like Gideon and David—“So let us throw off everything that stands in our way. Let us throw off any sin that holds on to us so tightly. Let us keep on running the race marked out for us.”

Chances are, you and I will never lead an army into battle. But we will face situations that are hard. We need to remember that God will be there to help us. He wants us, just like Gideon, to trust him and to keep doing the right thing, even when things get hard. Because when life gets hard, we need to remember what others did.

Week 5 Devotion - Perseverance

Virtue: PERSEVERANCE - Refusing to give up when life gets hard

• Scripture Verse: But those who trust in the LORD will receive new strength. They will fly as high as eagles. They will run and not get tired. They will walk and not grow weak. Isaiah 40:31 (NIrV)

Bottom Line: When life seems impossible, remember what God wants to do in you.

Have you ever heard the word “perseverance” before? Perseverance is refusing to give up when life gets hard. What are some examples of “when life gets hard?” Can you think of anything? How about on the soccer field? What if it’s the last few minutes of the game and the other team has been completely creaming us? Should we just give up and call it a day? Or should we keep trying our best, even when it gets hard?

That’s right. In order to persevere, you have to keep going. You can’t give up. But a soccer game is one thing. What about when your life gets hard? Like maybe you’re not doing so well in math. No matter how hard you try, you just can’t seem to understand it. Or what if there’s someone at school who keeps picking on you? Maybe you’ve tried to be nice, maybe you’ve even told your teacher, but he or she still won’t quit. What do you do then?

The first thing you need to do is remember that God is always with you. He is your perfect Heavenly Father and he loves you. He knows what you need and is always there to teach you what is right. Bad things happen to everyone—it’s just a part of life. No one enjoys the hard stuff. But it doesn’t mean that God doesn’t love you or that you should just give up on doing the right thing when life gets hard.

Because if you keep doing the right thing even when it’s hard, guess what? Your relationship with God will grow. God wants to teach you how to be like him. He wants to do something in you by changing your attitudes and thoughts and the way you treat others.

Week 4 Devotion - Honor

Virtue: HONOR - Letting someone know you see how valuable they really are

• Scripture Verse: Love each other deeply. Honor others more than yourselves. Romans 12:10 (NIrV)

Bottom Line: Honor others more than yourself.

Do you ever get a case of “me-itis?” What’s “me-itis,” you ask? Well, it sounds a little like this.

“Hey, I wanted to be picked first.”

“Give it back. That’s mine.”

“It’s my turn.”

Have you ever heard someone say that before? Have you ever said something like that? If we’re honest, I think we’d all admit that it’s pretty easy to only think about ourselves. After all, no one has to remind us to put ourselves first. We do that naturally. I mean, no one has to remind me to cut someone off in traffic so I won’t be late for work. No one has to remind you to cut in line when you don’t want to wait your turn, right? Putting ourselves first just comes naturally.

What’s harder is to think about others. Don’t believe me? Well, let’s talk about what this looks like on the soccer field for a minute. Are you a sore loser? A bad sport? If another team scores a goal, are you happy for them? What about if the other team wins the whole game? Do you congratulate them on playing a good game? Or what if someone else on our team scores a goal instead of you? Would you choose to honor them for a great play or become frustrated because you wanted the chance to score? Instead of being happy, do you think, “That should have been me”?

The truth is, it’s not easy to be others-focused. What’s easy is to be me-focused. But can you imagine what the world would be like if everyone only looked out for themselves? What would our team look like on the field if we didn’t work together and only cared about ourselves? God has a better plan. He wants us to think about others more than we think about what’s in it for us. In fact, in Romans 12:10 it says that we should “love each other deeply. Honor others more than yourselves.”

Week 3 Devotion - Honor

Virtue: HONOR - Letting someone know you see how valuable they really are

• Scripture Verse: Love each other deeply. Honor others more than yourselves. Romans 12:10 (NIrV)

Bottom Line: Honor those who are overlooked.

Have you guys ever heard of King David from the Bible? If you haven’t, he was a pretty famous king—one of the first kings of Israel. But before he became King, did you know that he was just a regular kid like you? In fact, if you could go back in time and meet David as a young boy, he’d never believe you if you told him that he would one day be a king.

Guess who else didn’t believe it? His family. See, David had brothers—a lot of brothers. In fact, David had seven older brothers. One day, while David was out taking care of his family’s sheep, a man named Samuel came to see his father, Jesse. God had told Samuel that the next King would be one of Jesse’s sons. So Jesse brought each of his sons to Samuel so that he could find the one God had chosen as King. But after looking at all seven of David’s older brothers, Samuel said, “the Lord has not chosen any of these.” You see, God’s choice for a new king didn’t have anything to do with how strong or handsome or popular he was. God wasn’t looking at the outside. He was looking at what was on the inside—his character, the way he treated others, the condition of his heart.

Samuel asked Jesse if he had any more sons. When Jesse told him that he had one more, he went on to say, “He’s out in the fields, tending the sheep.” It was as if Jesse had completely overlooked David. But God hadn’t overlooked him. David, while the youngest—maybe even the least likely choice in people’s eyes—was God’s choice to be King.

This is a great lesson for us too. God wants us to remember to honor those who are overlooked. He wants you to care about the kid in your class who everyone else ignores. He wants you to look out for someone who is constantly is picked on. Honor those who are overlooked.

Tiger Schedule

This week:  Lions vs Lady Tigers (wear Blue) on Field B
Picture Day September 21st at 9:51am (get there early)

Practice every Thursday @ 6pm-7pm on  Field A
No Practice October 10th and No Game October 12th for Fall Break
Final Game October 26th

Week 2 Devotion - Honor

Virtue: HONOR - Letting someone know you see how valuable they really are

• Scripture Verse: Love each other deeply. Honor others more than yourselves. Romans 12:10 (NIrV)

Bottom Line: Honor those who are over you.

Do you ever wish you could make the rules sometimes? After all, it might seem like your rules would be more fun. Like maybe you would choose to eat ice cream for dinner or wear your favorite rain boats everyday—even when it’s not raining. Wouldn't it just be awesome if you could make your own rules instead of always having to obey what adults tell you?

The truth is, everyone has someone who is over them. Even adults. Even me. For example, I have a boss at my job. I’m responsible to listen to him/her and follow his/her leadership. I still honor my parents by respecting their opinion and listening to what they have to say. God has put people in our lives to be in authority over us. And he wants us to show honor to them. Honor is letting someone know you see how valuable they really are.

God wants us to honor the people who are over us because they want what’s best for us. Your parents have rules in place, not because they don’t want you to have any fun, but because they know those rules will protect you. For instance, you have a certain bedtime because your parents know that getting enough sleep is one big way to stay healthy. I ask you to run drills and practice them over and over because I know it will help you play a better game and it will help you work together as a team. When you choose to honor those who are over you, you show God that you trust him.