Does football bring you closer to God?
By Staff
Leada Gore, Editor
I grew up in a household where sports were very important. My father coached football, softball and basketball and holds the distinction of being the only person I know who fainted in the end zone when the 75-pound Smith Cougars won the YMCA Metro title.
My mother is a sports fan, too, though she limits her love to college football. Her favorite team is Alabama and she’s been known to listen to sports talk radio to hear the latest about the Tide.
It’s a little disconcerting to hear your mother discuss the latest comment from “Phyllis from Mulga.”
Her love of the Tide is so great, however, that she cannot bear to watch them. She gets too nervous. Her normal procedure is to turn the game on the radio and then clean the house.
She likes listening to the Alabama announcers, as they are naturally favorable towards her team.
The plus side to all of this is she has a really clean house during football season.
For whatever reason, I seem to have inherited this “too nervous to watch” problem. I’m fine if I’m in the stands at a game. If I’m at home watching it on television, I get so nervous I can’t stand to watch. I tend to change the channel a lot or just walk out of the room. The end result to both is I miss lots of good things, such as our win over Florida last year.
So, this year, I pledged I would do better. I vowed I would watch the games and I’ve done so for the last two.
Of course, both of these games came down to the final seconds of the final plays. I paced the floor. I threw a shaker. I held the remote in my hand, poised to change the channel if things got too rough.
Feeling a bit silly, I decided to turn to God for some answers.
It helped a little, so I tried it again.
The action got tight, so I whispered another prayer.
We weren’t, of course, beaten by Vanderbilt. It was too close for comfort though. I don’t know if I will be able to stand watching many more games this year. I do believe, however, that this is proof that football is good for your prayer life.
