Promise (a letter to his mother)

 When you left he was unhappy. He’s happy now and I intend to make sure he stays that way. I love the man you raised, and I want to thank you. Thank you for praying for him when there was nothing you could say to him.

I made a list of what I would tell you if you were here:

1. I promise to grow in Christ with him and seek God’s will for our lives.

2. I promise to remain faithful to him.

3. I promise to pray for him and with him.

4. I promise to make Christian sacrifices for him.

5. I promise to forgive him as God forgives us.

6. I promise to remind him how much I love him all the time.

7. I promise to hold him as long as he needs to be held.

8. I promise to rub his back, his feet, his neck, his...

9. I promise to honor him even when I’m not around him.

10. I promise to satisfy his physical needs.

11. I promise to help him with yard work.

12. I promise to stand up for him.

13. I promise to spend time with his (your) family, to honor them and respect them.

14. I promise to cook.

15. I promise to always be an Eagles fan.

16. I promise to let him help me.

17. I promise to learn new things with him.

18. I promise to drive.

19. I promise to listen to music with him.

20. I promise to never go to bed at night with one of us angry at the other.

21. I promise not to embarrass him.

22. I promise to submit to him.

23. I promise to not be selfish.

24. I promise to put the lid back up.

Ms. Christine, all these things I promise to do for as long as he wants me around. You can rest easy and in peace. 

C0ACH

I have coached my daughters in soccer for 12 years, but I have coached for 17 years. The line between coach and mother is hard for me to navigate. I played the game and for me, there was nothing more important than being in the game. Blood, pain, and tears just fueled my desire to get up and get back in the fight. So as a mother when my kids take a tumble in the game, I'm on the sideline yelling, 'Get Up!' As the coach, my player is splayed out on the field, I have to take that run over to the injured player and help them off the field. I have been known to walk slower for my own kids than I do for someone else's kid. It's not that I care more about the other kid (contrary to what my youngest daughter might tell you) but I'm also praying for my own kid as I take that slow walk, believing that they are okay and if they get up before I reach them they can stay in the game. LOL

I have coached a few sports but soccer is my passion. At a young age the basics are the same in most sports. Head on a swivel, ready stance, be aggressive...then you get into the technicalities of each sport. I believe as a coach, only a basic knowledge of the game is necessary. Strategy. Know your players' strengths and weaknesses. In any sport, I can bring a trainer in to teach the skills needed for that sport, but the application is up to the coach and the player.

There have been very few instances where you would hear me say we were robbed! I will tell my team in a heartbeat, you are getting beat. They are outrunning you, outpassing you, outshooting you...that's the name of the game. Either go hard or go home. But if you are getting outplayed, what are you gonna do about it? Either you come to the sideline and regroup or you've already decided to go home.

The game we were robbed: Championship tournament game. My team and the opponent were tied for first place in this tournament. My team had won the regular season. The opponent's only goal in life (I hope I'm exaggerating) was to beat my team. It was a night game. The other coach's strategy, which was actually smart, was to stop my daughter. BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY. To say that he had been studying her all season would be to give him too much credit. I still don't believe he was THAT smart. 11 v 11 game. He had 5 of his girls on my daughter and she couldn't take the pressure. Oh they were fouling her ALL night and the ref was absolutely no help (needless to say he did get a piece of my mind)  They got robbed but I got outstrategized. There was no opportunity to go back to the drawing board and 'get em next time'. That was it!

Sometimes there is no opportunity to regroup. You gave what you had and that's it. But there is always the chance to take out that loss on the next opponent! They won't even know what hit them!