Daily Devotion-Monday- May 3

​Anyone who knows my family knows we were very involved in sports. My oldest son wrestled and my younger two primarily played baseball. There were other sports in the mix, but those were the ones that stuck with each one. Austin, my middle son, was a catcher all through younger years and into college ball. One of the roles of catcher is to lead the team- they sometimes refer to the catcher as the “General” of the field. Considering the arrangement of the position, the catcher often communicates with the batters and the umpire. Sometimes the catcher will say things to disturb the batter’s rhythm. This kind of instigates the player out of concentration thus potentially causing a bad outcome.   

 Well before their time in baseball were some famous players: Yogi Berra and Hank Aaron. There is a story about how Berra, as a catcher, would try to do this “trash talking” and once he had a bit sent back to him. You see, when Aaron was at bat, Berra attempted to distract him. His tactic was telling him his batting stance was wrong because the writing on the bat should have been located in a different position. He kept trying to distract throughout Aaron’s at-bat, but the batter was unflappable. Aaron had no response, he just focused on his job at the plate. In fact, he hit a home run over the center field fence. After rounding the bases and stepping on the plate, he finally responded to Berra by saying “I didn’t come here to read”.  

 What would our lives be like if we stayed focused on the work we have to do on this Earth? Would we get more good accomplished if we just let the words of the nay-sayers go in one ear and out the other? -Meghan