Anone thats been playing tennis for a year or so knows that its a sport all about angles and perspectives. Never has there been such a sport to teach one about life and decisions. If you approach the situation(shot)from one angle and it doesn't work then just change it up to a new perspective. Isn't that what we should do in life specifically marriage? Unfortunately in todays society too many people are ready to just throw in the towel thinking that the grass is greener on the other side only to find out that the new lawn needs mowing, weeding and cutting just like the old one. What about those nasty things we call weeds?
In tennis we say its time to clean house when the balls are left on the court and thats exactly what we do we pick up the balls so that we might get lucky and make that perfect shot. What do we do in our marriage when the balls are all over the house and nothing seems to work out right? We get down and dirty and clean that house up, we get rid of the things we don't need in our lives so we can truly focus on those that we do. Isn't that what happens if we lose focus of our marriage tow people can very easily disconnect and the game stops there. How do we get the volley back into our lives? By stepping back, taking a deep breath and reexamining the situation.
What about this thing they call the serve. Once I heard and instructor teaching the juniors about a serving technique. He said just let go of the ball and say high five to God. What happens to us as adults if we let go, toss that ball and say high five to God? Hopefully he listens to us. He becomes in command and he gives us the tools or the technique that we need to play the rest of the game out. It its all so simple to do then why do people complicate life so much? Why do we as individuals or couples allow garbage to come in our lives? Why is it so hard for us to let that ball go especially when its 50% of the game? I cannot answer that for you but for me its been one of those fear factors. Now I believe that it's true the only one to fear is God himself. But why should we lead our lives in fear anyway? What if we were all able to let go out there and pla the game for what it is?
Another tennis term to use which seems quite appropriate at this stage is boundaries. If the ball goes out of line then its clearly out but what about our marriage. What happens when we don't have definite boundaries in our marriage? Is it possible that so many of our divorces today are a result of not following the rules or boundaries? How about the score? Do you play fair? You can cheat yourself or others but only God in the end knows the truth. You can fool yourself or others but there is no fooling God.
Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young sing this song that came out in the 70s about teaching our children. If tennis is a skill that we have chosen to incorporate in our children's lives lets play the game fair so that they learn correctly about the boundaries, rules and serves in the world. In fact lets teach them that to serve anyone is the greatest gift you can ever give another human
being and that by serving others you can learn to reciprocate the services of life back.
