Losing! No one likes to do it. No one plans to do it. And I have yet to meet someone who enjoys it. However, it was a large portion of my formative years. For 4 years of my sports career losing was normative. Over 4 years of high school football my school accumulated records of 2-8, 0-10, 0-10, 5-5. My cumulative record for high school football was 7-33. Not impressive. But glad that I am not alone.

Losing is horrible, but when you have others with you it’s at least bearable, most of the time. The one time that losing is unbearable even on a team is when you are the one to blame for a loss. While I am not a proponent of saying one play or one player wins or loses a game, the reality is some plays or players role has a much more visible factor in winning and losing. Such is often the case for kickers in football. Such was the case for Cory Parkey of the Chicago Bears in the 2018-2019 NFL playoffs.

Cory’s situation is a rough one and yet I think much can be learned and gleaned from the scenario. Most vital life lessons and character qualities are forged in the midst of loss, not realized through victory. These qualities are the ones I want to teach my children, which is why I loved and highly recommend Dan Andros’ article “Why I’m Telling My Sons to Be Like Bears Kicker Cory Parkey“.

If you are trying to grow children with character rather than just winners, check out the article. And as always be with the Lord’s people on the Lord’s day!

Photo by Ben Hershey on Unsplash