Thanks For Being My Coach

Thanks for Being My Coach

One of my favorite roles as a father is that of coach. Coaching has provided sacred time with my children and a way for me as a pastor to be involved in the lives of people in our community. Some of my most satisfactory moments of ministry have come from coaching my kids on their sports teams.

At eleven years of age, my son Cooper’s use of the English language is often limited to one or two words at a time. So when he said to me, “Hey, Dad, thanks for being my coach,” my ears perked up. What a blessing to hear!

Before our football draft one season, I did two funerals within a three-day period. The men who died were in their seventies. When their children were young, one of these men had been a softball coach and the other a Scout leader. As their grown children came to visit me in my office, to a person they reflected on how their fathers had been present in their lives. I asked them for an example or two, and their answers spoke of the leadership their dads exhibited on the ball fields and at the pack meetings.

First John 2:14 speaks about the impact dads can have on their children. Notice the strength and victory wrought in the young men because of the mature lives and faith of their fathers: “I write to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one” (1 John 2:14, ESV).

Dad, there are no greater gifts to give your kids than your time and your presence. That leadership will be felt for years to come. Right before the football draft that year, I sent a note to the other coaches and said, “Guys, win or lose, what we will do for the next ten weeks really does matter.”

I write to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one.

1 John 2:14, ESV