Of Love and Basketball

As Valentine’s Day looms within just a few days, it lends us to pause and appreciate the love in which God allows us to participate. It should also cause us to evaluate our most precious relationships. How well do we love, particularly those one whom God has given us to be our most prized possessions? I read a story recently which I think accurately captures the essence of the purity of our love, particularly as it pertains to the love from a man to his wife.

In 1987 the Rockdale County High School basketball team (Conyers, GA) won their first high school basketball state championship. Needless to say, head coach Cleveland Stroud was beside himself. However, a few weeks following the championship game a discovery was made by the coach that would change the course of the history books and his life forever. Coach Stroud discovered that a third string player on the team had failed some courses in school, rendering him ineligible for the season. While he was an underclassmen who had little impact upon the success of the team, he had played significant minutes in one of the team’s regionals. Technically, this was a violation of state eligibility standards. This place the coach in quite a quandary. If he revealed the predicament, his team would be stripped of its title. If he kept the matter quiet, it was unlikely that anyone besides himself would ever discover the infraction. Despite the moral and ethical dilemma, Coach Stroud realized that he could not waver in what he knew must be done. He decided that his team’s championship was not worth the abdication of their character. He would later quote, “People forget the scores of basketball games. They don’t ever forget what you’re made of.” As a result, the coach reported the infraction and the team’s championship was renounced. They lost the game but they maintained their integrity. This earned the trust and respect of an entire community in which the coach would go on to serve in leadership. He was proven right—people forgot about the game, but they never forgot his display of integrity.

What does character have to do with the love between a man and his wife? Scripture seems to indicate that the character and integrity of a man has everything to do with this most important relationship.How can we as men show the utmost integrity and character in our love for our wives, especially in such a manner that the watching world around us will remember with pride our decisions? The following is a biblical call to arms for all men that have ever dared to love one woman. Anything less than these traits falls short of true, Christ-like love:

1. Pray with your wife. Men who are not living in the presence of God will be unable and unwilling to lead their wives into the presence of God.

2. Pray for your wife. Sincere love finds its starting point when a man begins wanting and asking the same things for his wife that he is seeking for himself.

3. Speak well of your wife. How do your friends and family perceive your love for your wife? How kindly do your speak of her to others?

4. Model respect to your children. It is a frightening reality to realize that our sons will undoubtedly treat the women in their lives in the same manner that they have watched their father treat the woman in his life.

5. Prove an attitude of gentleness. Our physical makeup should never excuse behavior which belittles a person of lesser stature. Real power is strength under control.

6. Fix your eyes upon the object of your desire. The eyes of man are never satisfied. A man with a wandering eye proves his own moral and ethical duplicity.

7. Practice chivalry. The opening of a door and the kind gesture proves a humble spirit.

On this Valentine’s Day, may we be men of character. It is the one thing that will walk away from our graves intact.

So in Love with Genee,

Jason