Every morning I wake up early to do some private devotion time then I leave for a workout.  Every morning up until yesterday I'd have to be careful where I walked in the dark because my boy Braxton would be sleeping on the floor in the living room.  He has a bed, a room, but preferred the floor because it was cooler.  Today he wasn't there again and it's really sinking in he won't be.

     Sometimes I feel like I'm living a parable.  I don't know if it's because I'm willing to share personal thoughts and feelings, or it's because living through experiences help me personally grow closer to Christ, maybe both.

Many, many times I've had someone thank me for the sacrifices we've made in our service, many times I've been told it must be hard.  I'm also typically pretty quick to say I don't feel like it's a sacrifice, I believe God has placed this love in my heart for others & it's a blessing to do what we're doing.  But on this day, I felt the sacrifice.  I know every family at some point goes through sending out their children, it's just a part of life.  Your so proud of them, excited for their future but also selfishly you want them to stay with you forever.

     I managed to keep it together pretty good until after we dropped Braxton off at the airport but on the way home I couldn't stop the sadness from taking over, it hurt and being human I started to question the whole thing.  What am I doing?  

That's when God stepped in.  As we made the turn onto our driveway I saw 20+ smiling faces, all waving to us.  It was only 8 am & the 6-9 yr old boys don't start practice until 9 am.  They were so excited to be there they were an hour early.  Then I looked up the road & there was a constant stream of kids coming, 40-50 more, all waving to us & smiling.  All so eager for the soccer program, so eager to be together, so eager to be apart of Christ's love.

I'm not saying my eyes instantly dried, I'm not sure how long that takes but I do know God has plans and they're always perfect.  He has beautiful, wonder filled plans for my son Braxton.  He has beautiful, wonder filled plans for our family and He has beautiful wonder filled plans for these kids.

As far as living a parable, I'm just a guy who runs a soccer program for kids. 

God Bless,

Barrett


If you are able, please consider a financial gift towards our program, we could really use it and would really appreciate the blessings.  Thank you!
to donate please go to www.sportdisciple.com and click the "support" button

The send off pic:)

more pics from the past couple weeks of Sport Disciple League coming soon!