“Good coaches teach respect for the opposition, love of competition, the value of trying your best, and how to win and lose graciously.”   Brooks Clark

If you were playing in a team sporting event and there arose a situation wherein one of the opposing players suffered an injury, and only you could help, would you?  What if you knew that if you helped, your team would lose the game?  Would you help?

The greatest among you must be a servant.  (Matt. 23:11; NLT)

A week and a half ago, I wrote about a marriage conference that Sharon and I had attended over the weekend.  If you will recall (5/19 DG), the conference was a video version of Dr. Emerson Eggerichs’ now famous Love and Respect Marriage Conference.  In my summary, I wrote, “Eggerichs’ basic premise is that men and women were “wired” to have different basic (or deepest) needs.  Women are wired to need love and men are wired to need respect.  Of course, the key verse describing this different need is Ephesians 5:33 where Paul commands every man to love his wife and then goes on to command every woman to respect her husband.  This is not to say that a woman doesn’t need respect nor that a man doesn’t need love, but we’re talking about deepest or motivating need here.”  Sorry for the review, but I recognize that not everyone reads the DG every day like we do.  ;-))  But one of Eggerichs’ foundational notions is that men and women are wired very differently. 

I just received a link earlier today to a Youtube video that brought Eggerichs’ basic idea roaring back to my head in a major way.  The video (today’s link) is how a couple of opposing players helped a player touch all the bases after hitting a home run in a softball game.  (That sentence will make a lot more sense after you watch the video.)  The story is incredibly poignant and will most likely bring a tear to your eye. 

What the two girls did was an incredible act of honor and integrity.  Note also that for performing that act, they lost the game.  My question for the day to you  is…could this even have happened if it involved two opposing teams of young men?  Would the “need for respect” that is wired into the male at birth make it virtually impossible for them to have performed this act of kindness and self-sacrifice?  And then as an extra point bonus question for the Christians among our readership, WWJD?

I’d love to hear from you on this.  Just leave a comment below.

Prayer Power
Lord, we thank You for examples of sportsmanship like we see as we watch this video.  Unfortunately, we just don’t seem to see enough of them anymore.

Link of the Day
Great sportsmanship in college softball game

Blessings on you as you ponder the meaning of sportsmanship over the next couple of days.