TODAY THE WORDS ARE IS COMPETITION GOOD FOR US

TODAY THE WORDS are IS COMPETITION GOOD FOR US? This morning on a news station they were headlining schools are suggesting keeping competition down to a minimum. As I am writing this post, the segment hasn’t been shown and it allowed me some time to turn this over to my thought process. I understand both sides of this coin since we have seen the good and the bad of competition with children. We grew up in a world of competition, starting with brothers and sisters in friendly neighborhood games. I don’t remember any negative results from our friendly, out to beat your behind competitions. We played, we won, we lost; and mostly, we laughed and argued. Of course our arguments were more like bickering instead of a real argument. We didn’t try to throw down a bat since our equipment was limited and our uniforms were whatever our play clothes were that particular day. I don’t remember feeling left out; I felt part of a neighborhood team. Oh, yeah and we played with mixed teams of boys and girls with no thoughts of equality, only feminist or male chauvinists views might have been spoken like “she’s a girl or he acts like a girl”, but we didn’t care; we wanted to play and importantly we wanted to win. If it was tug of war; we tugged with all of our might. If we were playing baseball; we played, we ran, we hit, we missed, we scored and we lost or we won. That was how it was and I think still should be. We put a lot of emphasis now on how the children are dressed; what equipment and if it is the best; what designer shoes they are wearing. It is more of a fashion show than it is real sports. Then we have “the parents” showing poor sportsmanship by yelling at a small boy or girl because “their” child didn’t hit the ball but it had to be how the other child pitched it and on and on. My thought about competition….when we played, our parents were in the home or working and we kids played without adult supervision and worked it out between us kids. Maybe the deciding factor is we need to take the parents out of the competition as they don’t allow the kids to be kids and to learn how to play with others; or we put the parents out on the field again to re-learn to compete fairly. After all, it is only a game! Now for the deeper thought….you knew it was coming! Playing fair in life is one of the most important exercise and lesson we can learn. It is acceptable to want to participate in friendly competition if we keep it friendly. Love sports, love competition, love to win; but love God and our fellow person more than anything else. Better to lose here on earth and win a spot on God’s eternal team!