Love Your Neighbor AND Your Football Fan As Yourself

Many of us know the verses in Matthew 12:30-31 “And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

For me, I do love the Lord with all my heart and that’s the easy part.  It’s the loving your neighbor as yourself part that is sometimes rather difficult.  Now before you judge me too quickly, remember that the neighbor isn't just your literal neighbor next door. (I DO love those neighbors.)  I’m thinking in the broader sense of the term – like the football fan.  They too are my neighbors both in the stands and in the community. These are the people that are watching me to see how I react to how well things are going or not going on the field. These are the people that need to see Jesus in my every word, every action and every reaction. The majority are great fans and very supportive of the coaching staff but every school has a few fans that are let’s just say – a little more difficult than the rest. It’s those fans that I’m writing about today.

Sometimes sitting in the stands and listening to all those fans who think they can do my husband’s job can be rather difficult.  There is always some point during the season that I just want to turn around and say, “Well, if your son would actually run the play my husband called, maybe things would have turned out differently.” Thing is, I can’t say that and I really shouldn’t say that.  It’s in these times that I need to take a deep breath and remember what the Lord called me to do – LOVE my neighbor.  Difficult as it may be – I’m supposed to LOVE in all situations, not just when the game is going well. Not just when we have a winning record.  ALL times.  

Win or lose, good times or bad times, on Friday nights we all arrive at the stadium for one common purpose.  We want to support our team.  We want to support our boys.  We want to cheer them on to victory.  Some people are just more passionate in how they express their support. When things aren't going according to plan, it's in these times that the wives of the coaches have to hear a little more than they want from their fans. This could make it a challenge to love them as Christ has called us to do.  As wives we put of our defensive mechanisms and want to protect our husbands and his reputation.  We know what capable he is of doing his job.  We want everyone to know that he is a great coach and we certainly want to turn around and tell that fan a thing or two about what it’s really like to coach football. It’s in these moments that you need to find some levity and bring it all back into perspective. 

We once worked with a coach that said, “There are two things that everybody in the world thinks that they can do well: 1) Make a peanut butter sandwich and 2) coach football.”  The wives loved this statement and so we came up with a little hand signal that was just for us when moments got intense and we were finding it hard to love our fans as ourselves.  A wife would simply hold up two fingers and we would all have a little laugh.  The moment passed and we all had a better perspective.

So when things get tough, just remember the number two.  Christ called us to remember two things. Love Him with all of our hearts and to love our neighbors as ourselves.  There are two things everyone can do, make a sandwich and coach.  Hold those two fingers high ladies and love well!

Cheering you on,
Laurel