I met a gentleman a few days ago and noticed he had a rather large ring on his hand. After visiting with him a few minutes, I commented on the ring thinking it was likely some type of championship ring from days gone by. It was a large square ring with several diamonds in it. He kindly said that it was just a wedding ring. We talked about that for a few minutes and moved on to other topics. But that ring got me thinking about marriage and family.
In the professional sports world, there are way more athletes than there are positions available. There is always a multitude of people trying to take your spot. Athletes that compete on the championship level dedicate much of their lives to being the best and constantly improving. When my son was swimming competitively, he was swimming 6-8 practices a week for 2-3 hours each practice and he was only15 years old and not yet in the highest practice group. The level of commitment of the championship level athletes is something that many people never understand. The same in business or in any career. I was visiting with a highly successful business owner one afternoon. He said he has had many people comment to him about how lucky he was with his high income and successful business. He said “the thing that I’ve found is that the harder I work, the luckier I get.” We see these high level athletes and successful people in every area and often think they are gifted with extraordinary talent, intelligence or some special gift that we cannot attain. In some cases, yes. But most of these people are ordinary people that have worked extraordinarily hard to achieve those levels of success.
It is easy to look at ourselves and say “I can never (insert whatever dream you have given up on here) because (insert any excuse you would like here).” It is easy to point to the especially gifted athletes and say “I could never do that”. but what we really mean is “It isn’t important enough to me to dedicate my life and work that hard to reach that goal.” It just makes us feel better about ourselves to say “I just don’t have the natural talent” than to say “I don’t want to.”
As I stood visiting with that gentleman and looking at his “championship” wedding ring, I commented again on his ring. He said “a good marriage is the best championship.” A good, healthy marriage is a lifetime of championships. It takes dedication, commitment, and hard work. Sometimes we lose a game. Sometimes it’s our fault, sometimes it is the other player’s fault. It is easy to quit playing and go find a different team to play with. But the champion works harder, encourages his team and pulls everyone to a higher level. Being a husband and a father is one of the hardest things I have ever done. I make lots of mistakes. Usually daily. Sometimes I get frustrated with the rest of the team for not doing what I think they should be doing. But I have a great wife and a great family. They are not perfect, and neither am I. Some consider me to be lucky to have such a great family. But I say maybe a little, but the harder I work at building our relationships, the luckier I get. Maybe if the men got “championship” rings instead of simple wedding bands, it would remind us all to keep working hard every day to earn that ring. My 25th anniversary is coming soon. Maybe it’s time for a ring?
Having a strong marriage and a great family is the greatest championship that anyone could ever win. Being a true champion is becoming the best person you can be and pulling the rest of the team up with you to earn that championship ring. Families are the building block of any society and a strong marriage is the foundation of every family. When families begin to fail and we are no longer willing to work hard to build a healthy marriage, our society begins to fail. If we can’t hold our families and marriages together, how can we expect to hold our society together?
What are you going to do these next Six and a Half Days to build your family, your marriage, and most importantly, yourself?
Excellent!
Wanda
Thanks for the encouragement.