Last week I was listening to Mike and Mike interview Urban Meyer. To say that Coach Meyer has been a successful football coach would be a huge understatement. His teams have won two National Championships and his winning percentage is over 80% and at one time he had the highest winning percentage of any college coach in the nation. As coaches go Urban Meyer is a legend – well at least in Florida. He has now retired from coaching and is currently working for ESPN as a football annalist.
In the interview Coach Meyer discussed some of the reasons he chose to leave coaching. He told the story of the day his daughter was going have her college sport signing event. Urban’s secretary all but begged him to take some time and attend the event with his daughter. During the signing his daughter made a statement and said, “mom I want to thank you for being here today. You have been with me all along the way you have never missed a game and you took me to practice everyday. I could not have done this without you. Dad, you have never been there, but thank you for coming today.” That was the moment when the coach knew his coaching days were numbered. He had accomplished so much in sports and he was making unbelievable money, but his carrier was costing him more than he could bare to pay. He was married to football and the team was his family. He made the decision to get his life back in focus and return to what is truly important to him. He retired from coaching and now has a job that allows him the time to be the husband and father he desires to be.
During you life you will loose a number of things that are not important in the big picture. You will loose your glasses, phone, car keys etc… you may even loose your job or a close friend. You can get more glasses and another phone. You can even find another job and make new friends, but there are a couple of things you can loose and never get back. One is time and the other is opportunities. Once you’ve missed something that moment in time is gone forever. There are no time machines for do over’s. The kids stuff you miss out on today is over and gone and those opportunities will never be replayed. There may be other games or events, but the one you miss today is over.
I am not trying to give anyone a guilt trip that doesn’t need one; I am trying to wake up parents who are missing the most important things in life. I know that when your children are young it is easy to think that there will be plenty of opportunities to see you children in sports, plays, recitals etc… but guess what… in the blink of an eye it’s over and time has passed you by and your are attending college graduation or giving away your daughter in marriage and you will wonder, “where did the time go?”
Moms and dads take my advice and go to all the events you can while you can even if you have to stay up late to finish that report or reply to emails or balance the books. Do it for your children and do it for yourself. In life you can look back, but you can’t go back. So as much as possible do it right the first time.
Love God. Go Love Others.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment