Before
I say anything, allow me to readily admit that a Time Out for Women blog may
not be the best place for football stories, but hear me out! As many of
you know, the four of us who comprise Jericho Road met in college. We
were pretty much your average sports-loving, ramen noodle-eating college guys
who also happened to love singing and performing together. Abe
won’t brag about it, but he actually walked on and made the BYU football
team. So maybe it was just the practice squad and he never quite got that
‘Rudy’ moment, but he accomplished WAY more than any of us did with our
athletic skills, so props to Abe! And if you want a good laugh, be sure
to ask Justin or Bret about the infamous intramural football practice
incident. But I digress….
I
learned something during the last NFL Divisional Playoffs that I wanted to
share with you. (For those of you reading this who have no idea what that
means, it’s the semifinals that determine who will play in the Super Bowl.) I
found it interesting that when the original 32 teams were narrowed to the final
four, two of them were coached by brothers. Jim Harbaugh coaches the
Baltimore Ravens and John Harbaugh coaches the San Francisco 49ers. For
anyone to achieve that level of success in coaching is phenomenal, so for two
brothers to do it in the same year is almost miraculous. I was curious to
know what type of upbringing these brothers had and wondered what could have contributed
to their great success.
One
thing really stood out: their dad. Jack Harbaugh was also a football coach who
raised his sons to be focused, hard-working and confident. Almost every
night when he got home from work he would energetically shout out at his
family “Who has it better than us?” In turn his family would shout back
and respond, “Nobody!!!” This is a tradition that John Harbaugh still has
with his team. Even through tough times he can be heard shouting in the
49er locker room “Who has it better than us?” to which his team will shout back,
“Nobody!!!”
The
message is that focusing on the positive in life will help us to be the best
that we can be. So often we get down about all of the stress, pressures, and
frustrations we have instead of thinking of all of the good things we have
going for us. Like those football players, recognizing our blessings and
appreciating the challenging opportunities we have in moments of discouragement
will immediately bolster our confidence and improve our desires to work even
harder and make things even better.
There
is not a person on this earth who doesn’t have access to the hope that Jesus
Christ brings. Every single one of us can look to the heavens with eager
and bright eyes and with the confidence that Heavenly Father loves us and has a
tangible plan for our happiness. So if we’re ever tempted to focus on the
negative and dwell on everything that might be going badly, hopefully we can
stop ourselves, think about the good news of the gospel for a moment and then
quickly ask ourselves "Who has it better than us?”
Nobody.