...Are you gonna stop? Or run?...

Baseball can be a tough sport.  Some people think there's a lot of standing around...and there is...but the thing is...when it's your turn to perform, you have to be able to quickly and accurately perform.  If you're not consistent...you get traded.  It's the same for kids as it is for the pros.  When my son played, he had desire.  He even played a game with a broken finger, but he didn't have much ability in baseball.  So at the end of every season, he would get put back into the "draft" and the next season he was always on a new team. 

All the coaches were different.  Different teams have different dynamics depending on the coach and the parents, but some things are similar.  One thing that I noticed with every team is that there were always coaches placed strategically on the field when the team was at bat.  There was always a coach standing by third to tell the boys when to run for home and when to stop.  Sometimes the boys became so dependent upon the coaches that they lost the ability to know when to keep running.  Sometimes, if the coach was distracted and didn't tell the player to run...the player would stand there and lose the opportunity to score a run.  Other times the boys would work hard...and steal bases...and load them up and then they would get out, the inning would be over, and they'd never get to run across home plate.

I started thinking today that sometimes we are no different than little boys on a baseball team.  We stop short of a "home run" at "third base", and sometimes we "strike out" before we get a run.  Sometimes it's because we are scared.  We doubt our abilities and fear failure.  Sometimes, it's because we are waiting on a "coach" to tell us what to do.  We've lost the confidence to make our own decisions and know when it's time to keep running.  I think we should change that.  I think we should be a little braver.  I think we should take more chances and run more.  Even if we fail at times...it's better than standing there and never knowing what we could've done, and it doesn't mean we should try again the next time.  Every pro baseball player that's ever played has been out before.  We need to summon the courage to keep running because you never know when they day will come that you will stop being afraid and accomplish something great!