Thoughts on the NFL draft from a Mom:
As I watched the draft last night, waiting like the many other friends on my FB stream to see where ol' Johnny Football would go - I read the status's of my friends - some lovers of him, some not so much a fan. As a Mom who admittedly had NEVER sat down to watch a draft, this time - I was watching. Ol' Johhny (or maybe an almost 14 year old precious boy) somehow had convinced me that this time - it was worth it!
And as I watched - I was overcome with emotion watching each kid get called up by their future (team). Their tears, their hugs, their pats on the back took my breathe away. Behind all those kids, I envisioned a Mom. Each of those kids a someone's "Canyon".
Each of those boys maybe started out in flag football, maybe a league like the "Bulverde Texans" where they daily went through a grind of conditioning, drills, tacking and more. I wondered if they'd spent hours in the hot sun, wore themselves out in exhaustion and puked on the way home from practice because they drank too much water - too fast. I thought about how they must have ventured into the Middle School years - enduring long summers of TAC conditioning, each morning in preparation for the next year's season. Behind them was surely a Mom who drove them to and fro with diligence - sometimes sticking around in the dead of the heat because she wondered how in the world her kid could handle it - just standing there watching him in the August Texas sun was too much for her. She worried ... Lord, please protect him.
They must have gone through the grind of "athletics" and football conditioning and waited in anticipation to see if they'd be chosen for the "A" team or the "B" team. Then, after MANY early morning practices of rolling out of bed at 5:15 to get to school - they finally took the field proudly wearing their schools colors.
Their Mom's showed up each week - hot or cold she must have been there to see her boy! No doubt, I am sure she would burry her head in her arms with each hit and tackle and her chest would swell in pride as the intercom once again would speak her sons name after an awesome play he'd just had. She must have cheered him through each yard - celebrated each touchdown and at the end of each day, washed his stinky clothes. They did this - year after year.
She listened to her young boy talk of dreams of playing college ball, and the pipe dreams of even the NFL. Deep inside she probably wondered if her kid had what it took to really go that far - but she listened in his excitement and supported even a seed of the dream. She might have even quietly prayed that if he didn't ... that the Lord would gently let him down so the fall wouldn't be so far. For sure, it didn't really matter if they did have the goods in her eyes - because that boy always knew that that Mom was his number one fan and in her eyes - he was the star of every team and every field he walked on.
That same Mom might have listened to the world talk negatively of athletes and the "dumb" jock stereotypes - dismissing that that same kid was in GT, had straight A's, was a NJHS member and loved Jesus with all that he was. Surely they weren't speaking of HER kid! She might have wished that the world knew the heart of her boy - the one that was born with a place inside him that was carved out with a special place for sports - something that even she didn't understand at first. Ya see, she learned along the way as she raised that boy, watched his diligence, watched him shed blood and tears, watched the relationships he'd build, listened to the coaches teach him about integrity, character, work ethic and what it means to be a TEAM - that sports were far more than about ability - in fact, she would learn that ability came second only to heart ... the very part of the heart that the ONE who created him had etched.
I wondered if as her boy's name was called last night - did she weep for joy and praise the Lord that he answered that boys prayers ... that had become secretly, hers. She must have been a mess as she realized that that young boy, who once had a dream - had done all that was necessary and the Lord had allowed that dream to come TRUE! I wondered if when she closed her eyes last night did she do so smiling. After all, she finally got see that all that work had paid off - he was chosen! Every one of those men - has a Mom and as a Mom of a boy who has a heart with a carved out place for sports - the draft took on a whole new meaning. God even created the athlete - from the womb of a Mom - and CAN use him for HIS GLORY!
