Bite my tongue...honor God

Here Here to the 7th Grade Girls Basketball team who had an awesome year. They ended their season 23 and 2 (or somewhere close to that). Here's what I know. They had a ton of games and only lost two. Their last one being in the Sectionals.

I have never really watched basketball until this year. Growing up, our family was a football family. I have two older brothers who played football, so I've been to A LOT of football games. And every Sunday afternoon, during football season, you could find us glued to the TV watching games.

So really, this was the first time ever that I watched much basketball, and I really enjoyed it. However, one thing that I noticed about basketball that I don't like is this...it seems like the calls that the refs make, makes more of a difference in basketball than it does in other sports.

Like for instance, we could have played the exact same game last night, and had three or four calls gone our way, the outcome might have been different. I'm not making excuses. I'm just saying I never realized how much the refs can affect a game. You know that they definitely missed some "traveling" calls when our whole crowd roared at once when the unchecked fouls happened. Seriously. It wasn't like just one person saw the missed call. You would actually hear a unified roar from the crowd because everyone saw it. And if everyone saw it, how could we, the fans, be wrong? Answer: we probably weren't. It was probably indeed a missed call.

So, how should we respond to that? Well, I can tell you that emotionally I never like it. The missed call does not make me happy. But what I know is, to respond with an overly rebellious verbal response cursing the refs would not be God honoring. Does God care? I think He does.

One of the hardest spiritual pills that I've ever had to swallow, is the spiritual truth where God says that I have to submit to authority. It's hard because, as you know, sometimes those who are in authority make mistakes. Sometimes they make bad decisions. Sometimes they do or say things that we think are seemingly wrong, or stupid. At my job, I have to submit to my boss. He is the one in authority. Whether I like his "calls" or not doesn't really matter, he's the boss and I'm not. I don't think that means we can't have a voice...but we need to make sure that when we voice our opinion that we do so in a respectful manner. Why? Because God said this:

"Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every authority instituted among men" 1 Peter 2:13

So why does it not honor God for us to "cuss" the refs? Because guess who the authority is on the court. The referees are. They have been put there, on the court, to maintain order.

So what do I do? Well, if I see a missed call, I sometimes can't help but have that immediate initial reaction. That immediate gasp that cries out, even non verbally, "c'mon ref!"
But I try my best to refrain from draggin' it out, hanging on to it or bad mouthing them (EVEN if they deserve it, I do my best to refrain.)

Why do I chose that? well, to be honest it's for two very real reasons. One is, I video taped a game early on in the season, and as I watched the video I could hear myself yelling at the refs, (ha) and quite honestly it hit me like a ton of bricks. I did not like the way I sounded.

The second reason is because I believe with all my heart that God stands up for the man (woman) that honors Him. And for me to "honor" the refs, honors God.

Now having said that, let me say this, I am not perfect in this. And it is something that I have to keep in check at all times. And I know that even after saying this, there will probably be times at games when I slip up and get mouthy. But as the words begin to roll off my tongue may I be reminded to do the right thing...bite my tongue, honor God.

Psalm 39:1 I said, "I will watch my ways and keep my tongue from sin;

Proverbs 10:19When words are many, sin is not absent, but he who holds his tongue is wise.