Youth Sports
Why are you trying so hard right now?
That’s not a trick question. It’s worth actually thinking about. Are you trying because you want to play well personally? Because you want the team to win? Because you don’t want to let your teammates down? Because you love the game?
All of those are real reasons. But there’s one that makes players perform better than any other, and most people don’t expect which one it is.
Read this passage slowly.
Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
John 15:13 — NIVLet that sit for a second before you move.
The greatest kind of love is giving yourself for someone else. In sports, you’re not literally giving your life — but you are giving your energy, your effort, your best, for the sake of your teammates. And research on sports teams actually shows this: players who are motivated by wanting their teammates to succeed work harder and perform better than players motivated only by their own stats.
Think about it in a game. If you’re tired and you’re playing for yourself, it’s easy to take a play off. But if the person next to you is counting on you — if your teammate needs you to keep running so they have someone to pass to — you find a little more energy. You don’t want to let them down.
Look around this team right now. These are the people you’re playing for. Play like it.
Players motivated by their teammates work harder than players motivated only by themselves.
Is there a specific teammate you want to play well for today? Why them?
The named person and the named reason connects the abstract to the concrete. Some kids may not want to say it out loud — that’s okay. The question is still worth sitting with.
Look around this team. Play for them.
This devotional works especially well immediately before a game. End it quickly and let the team go compete with the motivation it created.