People who sit on couches and rule the world were offended by sixteen-year old Gabby Douglas, who won two Olympic gold medals in gymnastics. Their problem? Her hair wasn’t styled correctly.
Come again?
That’s why Gabby is an Olympic champion and these people are couch potatoes. She did the work, and made the sacrifices necessary to be the best in the world in what she does.
Here’s what the mature youngster says, “And hard days are the best because that’s where champions are made, so if you push through the hard days you can get through anything.”
You know, I’d like to be a champion for God, wouldn’t you? Here’s some things that will help you win a ‘gold medal’ from the Lord.
How do we do our best?
—-Just know that Jesus has already won the victory at the Cross. We work for this medal, not so that we can be saved but because we are saved and we want to please Him more than anything else.
–Continually put our heart before Him to be purified.
–An attitude that presses into what God has. An attitude that “pushes through” especially when it gets hard. Those “hard days” that Gabby talked about.
–Hard work motivated by love for Him and a sense of responsibility for His confidence in assigning us a job.
–Hunger and love for Him. Constantly wanting to know Him better.
–Trying to improve and grow.
–Seizing God’s dunamis, His spiritual power He’s promised us through the Baptism in the Holy Spirit. This is a spiritual battle and natural gifts won’t get the job done.
–Hang around people who inspire us to do more; teach us; encourage us; pray with us; balance us by seeing what we can’t; confront us; love us no matter what.
–By helping others do their best, praying for them, lending a helping hand, encouraging.
“The foundation is laid already, and no one can lay another, for it is Jesus Christ himself. But any man who builds on the foundation using as his material gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay or stubble, must know that each man’s work will one day be shown for what it is. The day will show it plainly enough, for the day will arise in a blaze of fire, and that fire will prove the nature of each man’s work. If the work that the man has built upon the foundation will stand this test, he will be rewarded. But if a man’s work be destroyed under the test, he loses it all. He personally will be safe, though rather like a man rescued from a fire.” (1 Cor. 3:11-13, Phillips)
Our job isn’t to compare ourselves with others, it’s to know what God has given us to do, seek Him with all our heart for the tools to accomplish that job, and to do it persistently and passionately until the Day we stand before Him to report. (1 Cor. 4:6, 7)
And if you do that, it doesn’t matter if you have a nappy haircut.
Hmmm …
The natural flights of the human mind are not from pleasure to pleasure, but from hope to hope. –Samuel Johnson