In honor of the beginning of the 07 little league season I have posted some pics on my sidebar of the most enthusiastic 8 year old you will ever meet. He loves baseball and is very ready for the season to begin. Yes, all of you who live in the east don't start for a while (you lucky dogs) but those of us who live in the sunshine states get to start games the first week of March. What that means is practice will start the first of February.

Baseball season in our house is crazy. My husband and I are very active in running the local league. I think my hubby would like to quit his job and become a full time little league volunteer. Unfortunately, their are bills to be paid so he has to go to a real job every day where he just gets to daydream about being a full time Little League volunteer. Hubby is a player agent as well as the right hand man to our wonderful president (she reads hers so, Hi Lori). Last year I was the treasurer as well as chief bottle washer (meaning anything else that needed to be done) so this year I have taken the much smaller job of secretary. However, the person who usually runs the snack bar has gotten a "real job" and I somehow volunteered to take that over. I am starting to panic a little trying to figure out how that will get done, but I am sure I can find a good team of volunteers to help me (after all I am a wonderful person and who wouldn't want to help me???lol).

We have had a tough couple of years at our little league. We have had people running our league that were so self serving words cannot even describe how disgusting I found their behavior. Last season we formed a coup and took over the league from the evil empire. It was a rough year, but now things are so much better. I am so thankful that this place my children spend so much time is now run by a primarily Christian group of people who value every child and not just their own. We have had people return who had left and have heard stories from others that have made our blood boil.

At one point during last season one of the disgruntled parents (who had been hoisted out of power) accused me of stealing all the money out of the snack bar. Now, I found this so amusing I just started to laugh which made this person even angrier. She started screaming and making a huge scene in front of all the other parents. I just stood in front of her very calmly and let her rant and rave and then I walked away. People asked me how I had been able to stand their and listen to her garbage without hitting her or screaming back. Simple, I am a Christian. At that moment I knew all eyes were on me, and while many might not have known I was a Christian, I knew. This poor woman is still angry and spewing her venom wherever she goes but thankfully she has left our league and we will not have to deal with her or her friends anymore. A legacy was left from that day on the baseball field. Our president took much more abuse last year than I and she had every right just to wash her hands of the whole thing and walk away. She didn't. You see, she is also a Christian and we felt in many ways this ball park was our mission field. We couldn't lay down and let evil win, we had to fight. We did, and we won. Our league is now run by a group of godly men and women and it shows. Many who had left little league have come back as they heard we were now in charge. Some of our parents have even visited our church's.

When I thought back on that day recently I realized that if I had lost my temper and given in to my desire to punch that lady in the nose (come on, I am not a saint!) what kind of role model would that have been for my children (yes, she did this in front of two of my children). I am so thankful that God gave me the restraint I needed and I am finally learning that I need to always act like a Christian, not just when it is convenient for me.

Blessings,
Julie

Labels: faith