Give Up What's Holding You Back

All my life, I wanted to be the next Mickey Mantle. I watched him as a kid on Saturday afternoon TV in his Yankee pinstripes and he could really hit. I dreamed about it every day.

Today, kids look up Bobby Witt Jr, Patrick Mahomes, Steph Curry, Sophia Smith, and Simone Biles. For me, it just happened to be Mickey. You get it we all have heroes and dreams as a kid.

I had a paper route from 7th to 12th grade every morning at 4:00am, seven days a week. I would ride my bike, get the papers, roll ’em up, throw them at houses and pretend I was in the big leagues, throwing runners out. I could really throw and hit pretty much anything I aimed at. I did however break 37 windows in five years and learned to take a little off my throws occasionally. It got expensive to over throw the target. I did develop some strong legs from peddling that old Schwinn.

But initially, my dream stalled. What held me back was a small but unhealthy habit—every morning on my route, I’d greet the highway patrol dispatcher who worked where the papers were distributed. He would say, “If you’ll go to the store and get the donuts, I’ll buy.” So by the time high school tryouts came around in 10th grade, I was cut the first day out. Might have had a few too many donuts. Fortunately, the coach who cut me told me not to quit—he told me to keep playing, get in a little bit better shape and that I could make the team the next year. Without that coach encouraging me to not quit, I would have easily walked away from the game.

Occasionally, we all have something that holds us back. What’s holding you back?

Sometimes you have to get rid of what you like to get what you love. For me it was the donuts. Didn’t just go cold turkey, but slowly started to break the bad habit, got in shape and the next year things went much better.

I could line up the things in life that have held me back. Pride, procrastination, fear, worry, impatience, anger, denial…

In Psalm 37 verses 1 through 8, three times it says “Fret not!” As parents, we just worry too much, like it’s our job. It says, be patient! Oh man, sometimes I just want to take matters into my own hands and do it myself…and it says, “Be slow to anger.” Whoa, what a big one this is. Try replacing your worry with faith.

Dr. Thomas, my pastor/mentor in high school told us one day, “You have to learn how to ‘respond’ in love instead of ‘reacting’ in anger.” It works. It has helped me over the years to avoid a few things that would have not been good.

As parents and grandparents, we really need to understand this. Just this past weekend I was at my granddaughters’ volleyball game and I had to remind myself how to act! She is 7!!

It was intense! Those girls were amazing! So were the parents and grandparents. It was how it is supposed to be. The coaches were amazing, the day was awesome, the girls were really getting after it…nothing was holding them back.

Get rid of the donut, do what you need to do.