Kicking Goals for God's Fame

Elise & Chloe, who have been involved in ballet for the past few years, decided they wanted to give a go at soccer, so this fall they traded in their ballet shoes for cleats. We miss seeing them dance, but we were excited to have them get to experience something new, especially something team-focused that would teach them things like sportsmanship and working together with a team toward a common goal (pun intended!). Janelle was team mom for both teams, and I served as assistant coach for Chloe's team, so it made for a busy fall, but it was well worth the investment. Though it was a steep learning curve for the girls (neither had any experience), they had a blast, learned a great deal, and both of them actually developed into solid players (proud dad speaking here!). One of our favorite experiences was seeing God show His love to the girls in an interesting way. Half way through the season, neither had scored a goal and desperately wanted to. One Friday night, I was moved to pray very specifically that God would allow them to score the next day. As I drove Elise to her game early the next morning, I felt compelled to tell her that I had prayed for her to score a goal, but then hesitated. "What if she doesn't score? What will that do to Elise's view of prayer -- and God? Should I really put my faith and God's reputation on the line over a silly goal?" I wrestled with these questions for a moment, but believing that God had really led me to pray for them to score, I went ahead and told Elise. Wouldn't you know that both she and Chloe scored their very first goals that morning?! May God's fame grow.