Weekly Thought – September 5, 2017
Fred processed continually. He looked at life through the lens of philosophy, psychology, and faith. He saw the nature of God and the nature of man as the groundwork for all worldviews and thought structures. He loved thinking and thankfully he preserved thousands of these thoughts and inklings for us.
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The Will to Win
Mary Alice and I have six grandchildren. Our three children keep us amply supplied with pictures. Mary Alice is now thoroughly enjoying the second generation and the opportunity to be a grandmother. I am grateful for them and all they represent. They are great pictures, but that isn’t what is important. It will be what the children see in themselves that matter. An eminent psychologist told me, “Fred, what a boy thinks it takes to be a man and what a girl thinks it takes to be a woman then tells me what I need to know to predict their behavior.”
But there is more – and something we can’t see in the photographs… the will to win, the drive to be a pro. Only time will show if they have the willingness to play hurt, to concentrate on becoming the best at one thing. I have always liked Paul’s focus: “This one thing I do.”
Just this week I was playing golf with the head of a marketing company who said, “We can now test for most things in a man’s ability and personality, but we can’t test to ascertain the price he is willing to pay for success.”
A highly successful executive and I were listening to world-class athlete Bob Richards tell what it meant to win an Olympic gold medal. My friend leaned over and whispered to me, “I may not be an Olympic winner on the outside, but I am one on the inside.” He has the will to win.
That is where the real champion starts for all of us. The desire, training, and ability to stay in there, lose, and then keep on coming on – that is the will. And this is not just an attribute of an athlete – this is seen in the factory, the home, the office, and in church life. We can all be pros.
When I look into the eyes of our grandchildren, I see promise and greatness (after all they do have our DNA), and I pray they will see in themselves a reason to pay the price of accomplishment and achievement. More than that, we want them to be people of character – that is the true win.
This week think about: 1) How serious am I about maximizing my gifts? 2) Who needs my encouragement and word of hope this week? 3) What is stopping me from doing my best?
Words of Wisdom: “That is where the real champion starts for all of us. The desire, training, and ability to stay in there, lose, and then keep on coming on – that is the will.”
Wisdom from the Word: “Not that I have already attained this – that is, I have not already been perfected – but I strive to lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus also laid hold of me.” (Philippians 3:12 NET Bible)