Live Like Jesus

What standard have you set to live by? Are you living by your or your neighbor’s words or God’s? Maybe your standard has been set to better yourself in comparison with someone else--a friend, sibling, your parents, someone at church, or even a teammate or coach. For me, my standard was always set by my Dad. As I grew older, I set personal goals to be a better man, husband, and father than my Dad was. Make no mistake, my Dad was a great man and a great example to follow. But some time ago, I realized that having my standard be apart from God’s, even compared to a great man, was wrong. I was missing out on reaching potentials I never thought possible.

As a father, husband, and coach, I’ve been praying to be more like Jesus, who set the standard for grace, kindness, patience, and love! While my standards and morals were decent, without fully knowing or following His example, I was falling short. He revealed to me that I needed to set Him, the King of Kings, as my standard. His conviction eventually led to a deep hunger for His Word so I knew how to navigate the areas of my life I couldn’t control or control as well. This required me to dive into His teachings daily so that I could see how He responded to conflict, how He led others, how He served others, and most importantly, how He loved.

As coaches and athletes, we can be tempted to follow in the footsteps of the greats in our sports. Whether that’s our own family members, professional players, or legendary coaches, we must break the cycle of generational curses and standards; but this will only happen by living in the Word not being of the world. Once we make this separation, our standards become ultimate—higher than they can ever get. When we truly seek out Jesus and His Word, we can then understand how to love and serve like Him!