Values Rooted in Christ

Throughout my career as both a coach and player, identifying the team’s core values has always been a part of the first meeting of the season.

Some years, our coach would put four to five words in front of the team and empower his athletes to live by them. Other years, the team and the coaches came up with words together that would be the values to live by that season. There are few times I can remember where our team did more than hear the words and actually lived by them in their daily walk. It seemed like a good idea to have core values, but if we weren’t living those values outside of sports in our daily lives, oftentimes, we forgot them in our field of play. Sometimes, we lived them on the field of play but didn’t apply them to our daily lives.

Throughout the New Testament, Jesus taught us to love God and love others. He valued those two things and it could be seen in His daily walk. If we look to the Bible for what our values should be, we can sum them up to loving God and loving others. When your values mirror Jesus’, it does not matter what words are given at the beginning of a season. What matters is that you will already be walking in them through Christ. Integrity, honor, trust and commitment in competition is easy when your values are loving God and loving others

As Christian competitors, be empowered to not only listen to the Word of God but value it. This is where real impact takes place and significance occurs.