Who is the Coach?

Note: Our family has been discussing what it means to be a family team. These two different links will lead you to other posts where we address this topic, covering other elements of Team-ship (Team-hood? Team-ness?) in greater detail.

Initially, the question of "Who is the Coach of the Family Team?" seems to have an obvious answer: Mom and Dad!

Thinking about the role of Coach more specifically, though, particularly in context of Life being the playing field, we decided that Heavenly Father better fits that description.

For one thing, Mom and Dad are out on the playing field of Life right along with our kiddos. We're figuring out the Game as we go, too. We might have been on the field a little longer than the children, kind of like being Seniors in High School versus the Pee-Wee Football Team or Little-Leaguers.

Heavenly Father, on the other hand, is so knowledgeable about the Game -- being that He is omniscient, and all! He has studied the opposition and knows their tactics. Remember: in the case of the Family Team, we don't compete against other families, but rather against those forces that are trying to break down our family.

These forces come in all shapes and sizes: scary things like immorality and addictions; ugly things like vulgarity and violence; things that disguise themselves as good, like over-scheduling or over-indulgence; sneaky things like selfishness and pride.

Heavenly Father asks a lot of us, just like any good coach would. He requires us to build our muscles individually, in preparation, long before we compete in games. He wants us to workout on our own as well as show up to practice day in and day out, and scrimmage a bit. He knows what our individual challenges are and sets up situations to help us develop the skills we need to overcome those weaknesses. He has developed the Ultimate PlayBook, aka the Scriptures!

So, what other positions do we need to define?

Team Captain: Jesus Christ! He came to play on the field, too. He sets the example. He'll call the shots (if we let him). He takes the heat for us if we fail. And he encourages us to get up and try again.

Cheerleaders: Mothers! Okay, that might be a little gender-typing going on there... but for real, I LOVE cheering my kids on!

Waterboy: Dad! Ha, just kidding... although, in our family, he does a good job of making sure we have the Living Water in our lives.

Referee or Umpire? Hmmmm... I think this would be the oldest child, at least in our family. He has already discovered the right way to do everything, so he makes sure everyone else lives up to that!

Other position titles are sport specific, like quarterback, pitcher, goalie, scrum half (that's a rugby term!), attacker (lacrosse!), or chaser (quidditch).

I'm sure each of us can think of ways our individual children fit into these various roles... and interestingly, we can mix sports metaphors on our family teams, because of the way WINNING is defined differently!