Theron coaches the Tyrone Jr. High roller hockey team.
by Theron Glenny
Who wouldn’t say yes to living with more purpose? We all do, right?
Today, I want to help you live with more purpose by helping you identify your platforms. You see, to live with more purpose, we have to identify our platforms in life.
Throughout history platforms were what people stood on to preach a message. Platforms allowed one to have a voice. Platforms allowed the preacher to call people to action and change.
We all have platforms. One of my platforms is sports.
Sports are a big part of our culture. So much so many of us parents shove a ball into our kids hands as soon as we can. Our sons wear their first football uniform on the way home from the hospital, right?
As a kid I constantly had a ball in my hands. The size of the ball varied depending of the season.
Growing up, football, basketball and baseball were my favorites. Backyard football with my two brothers and cousins usually ended in a brawl. Basketball wasn’t any different. I recall playing late into the evening under our front porch flood light with my brother Nathan regularly. Our games were usually heated and sometimes ended with throwing the ball at each other. Though I was older, I always admired he never backed down from the physicality of our games. That’s one reason I believe he became a fine basketball player whose high school team ended up breaking the national record for 3-pointers in a single game (34 3’s if your wondering).
Sports were life at the Glenny home. My Dad and Mom’s evenings and weekends were filled with practices and games. I’m still unsure how they managed to make it to them all. Undoubtedly, their commitment has inspired my brothers and I to show that same support as our kids grow up.
Now that I’m older, I look back on those fond years with a curiosity as to why God had me so involved in athletics. Why was I so passionate about sports? Did God have a greater purpose for that love and passion?
Many times as parents, we think the sole purpose of youth sports is to prepare them for the college scholarship. However, what if it’s more than that? What if sports are simply one of the many platforms for leaders to shape and mold lives?
I look at my six year old son, who loves hockey and football. People comment all the time about how good he is…and, he is (proud Dad). But, what if part of his destiny is not becoming the next Sidney Crosby? Great if he does. I know God purposefully crafts passions. He puts things in our hearts that are intended to become a platform to develop the lives of the next generation. Our job as parents is to help train and develop our children so they can be good stewards of the platforms God gives them.
As I get older, the more I see how God was crafting my life from the start by building the platforms I have now. My marriage, being a parent, my business, and coaching sports are all platforms I use to influence lives.
What is it that God has been crafting in your life from the very start that now is a platform for you?
Could it be sports? ...building houses? …music & entertainment? ...business? God’s not limited to only creating one platform for you. You probably have multiple.
What are they? And, more importantly, what are you doing with them?