What a week!

I come home to try and get right back in the swing of things only to get sick! It has been YUCKY!! Friday as I was leaving work at the city, my throat started killing me! I had been tired, and I thought it was from getting stuff caught up...never relizing what was coming up! I missed small group "again"...hoping not to "share" sickness with my group. I really do miss them all though!

Saturday I spent on my couch, in and out of sleep. I did shower and make it to our staff/leadership dinner, which, now looks like I might have shared my illness with Brian??? No, I still say Dan was sick first!!! I feel like I am in slow motion...Sunday I came to church and took care of stuff, but I think I was in a daze.

Then, that evening... I, myself, am excited when Super Bowl is here! We make a family event of it. Bill and William bought ribs and the fixins to cook for our event! It was good for me, since I could lounge on my couch and watch the game and the commercials! I Love it!

Football and sports have been a part of my life since I was 6 years old. My brother and I played any and all since we were little and my sister played when she came along too! My mom and dad coached us and others. We learned respect- for our coaches, parents and refs or umps; we learned sportsmanship - it's not just winning that's important, it's how you play and how you lose; we learned to do our best and that if we gave our best, that was all that was expected. We learned to strive to and for our goals and to never give up. We learned to encourage others and play as a team. Not that we were better than anyone else!

I think that sports can be used as a positive influence on our children. It can be used against them also though. I have seen parents irate and crazy that their kid is too good to sit the bench, or play on a non-winning team. I have seen the parent teaching their child they are better by fighting...how crazy is that??? It's really up to the adult. You can use anything and everything in your life as a teaching experience for your children. It's up to you as a parent to be the positive influence for them in every situation. (Even the bad ones.)

A few weeks ago we were watching football...imagine! When one of the players was still on the ground after a play. The camera showed the player with the trainers/drs on the field. It looked like it could be a bad injury. The next picture that showed on my TV was 3 of the players on their knees, holding hands, eyes closed and heads bowed in prayer! It was so awesome to see his team mates praying at that very time while he was still on the field. What a great moment to share with my family that men who are looked up as heros to by our children today would bow in prayer on the football field. Many of our sports heros are Christians and they let everyone know about it. What a great witness they all are! Most don't get the recongnition of being a Christian since our media doesn't promote it...but...you can find out more about each one on their web sites, maybe your child's sports hero is.

Ok...back to this week. The sicko yes, we have a sicko office. (I know...we always have a sicko office) But this time it was for real. Coughing is mainly what you will hear when you come in. It's probably not a good idea to come in though. Hopefully we will all be well and ready to jump back in to things on Sunday!

Thanks for all your prayers!