Josh and I went to see the mighty Boyd Yellowjackets take on the Bridgeport Bulls in basketball last night. It was a good game and I was a little surprised to see Boyd come out on top. They’ve got some good shooters but make too many ball-handling mistakes. Still, the season is early and there is time for improvement. Bridgeport came in with taller players who jumped better but they seemed out of sync all night. Their fans were upset and shouted at the refs, the players and the scorekeeper. That’s the funny part, the scorekeeper is Phillip Ritchey and if you know Phillip, he’s a pretty big guy. They yelled at him about the possession arrow, they yelled at him about putting fouls on the scoreboard and they used a 4 letter word at one point during their frustration. Phillip turns around to me at one point and says something to the effect of “these people make it hard to keep your Christianity sometimes.” Now, he said it somewhat jokingly but he was right. I was listening to this ranting and raving and I was wanting to turn around and tell them #$*@(@_)!*#*^%&@()@_)#*&%.

It is hard at times to maintain the good thoughts we need to maintain when we see people around us acting so bad. It’s hard when you hear about someone shooting a police officer to think of them as a child of God. I am faced with situations every day that test what I think and what I do. Too often, I don’t pass the test but I’m thankful God keeps wiping the slate clean and letting me start over. And I’m thankful that even though I fail too many of my tests, they really aren’t hard tests like David or Paul or many other Bible characters endured.

May God grant you and me the ability to stand up to temptations, to defeat the devil’s tricks and to give us victory with Him.