Youth Sports
When you line up against the other team today, what do you see?
Enemies? Kids who want to beat you? People you want to beat?
Here’s something worth remembering: the kids on the other team are just like you. They practiced all week. They’re nervous and excited. They love their sport. They have coaches and parents who care about them. They’re not your enemies. They’re the reason the game exists.
Read this passage slowly.
Love your neighbor as yourself.
Mark 12:31 — NIVLet that sit for a second before you move.
Love your neighbor as yourself. Your neighbor includes the kid wearing the other team’s jersey. You can compete against them with everything you have and still respect them. Those two things are not in conflict.
Respecting the other team means playing hard and playing fair. It means when you win, you don’t rub it in. When you lose, you don’t make excuses. It means shaking hands and meaning it.
It also means this: don’t talk badly about the other team before, during, or after the game. Not because of the rules. Because those are real people, and they deserve the same dignity you do.
The best competitors in the world respect their opponents. Because without the opponent, there is no competition. The other team makes you better by showing up and giving everything they have. That’s worth respecting.
The other team makes you better by showing up. That’s worth respecting.
What does respecting the other team look like during the actual game? What does it look like after?
Specific and behavioral. Push for concrete answers rather than general ones.
Compete with everything you have. Respect the person across from you. Both.
This devotional works best before the game, not after. It sets the posture for competition rather than processing what already happened.