There's been quite the buzz in our house for the last month! It's HOCKEY season and for the first time in 7 years Hunter has the opportunity to play in an organized league!
As a young boy Hunter was always found in his boxers, with his hockey helmet on and his stick in his hand. He lived and breathed it. His dream, like many canadian boys was to play in big leagues when he was older.
Hunter first started playing in a league when he was four. When he was just 5 or 6 he was already super fast and super dirty....as competitive parents we would laugh when he would take players out. His coaches noticed and mentioned early on that this boy had potential.
The next year when Hunter was seven we could no longer avoid it. If he wanted to play hockey, he needed to play Sundays which meant major conflicts with church. As ones who served in the church and with Jamie being a competitive hockey player we knew this was one of the many difficult choices we would need to make as parents. Our desire as parents is to put Christ first in every area of our lives, and to teach our children to the do the same. What? That meant telling our all canadian boy he couldn't play hockey? Yes, that's exactly what that meant. This was not only heart breaking for us, but especially for him. Year after year at registration time he would ask if he could play, and year after year we were faced with the same news, game days in our zone were on Sundays.
5 years later a young Pastor must have been carrying the same burden. So he started a Saturday morning league so his boys, along with many others would still have the opportunity to play. As with any new vision, it takes time to get things rolling which meant there were only enough players to run one ice time. This meant there were players ages 6-13 on the ice at the same time. Hunter was 12, so was much bigger than most of the other players. He found this frustrating at times, but knew this league was at the grassroots and was his only opportunity to play...so he continued to play for the year.
Finally, the moment we'd all been waiting for came. After seven years we got a lead on a league that didn't require his age group to play on Sundays. HALLELUJAH! Hunter was pumped! After a month of evaluations, practices and exhibition games the season began. Hunter was placed on a team not knowing anyone, but he didn't seem to care because was finally playing hockey! After the first game his team and coaches gathered and had a meeting, voting in the team captain.....the captain would be announced before they hit the ice at the next game.
I wasn't able to attend the game last night, but all of a sudden my phone lit up and this is what I saw.
Hunter walked out of the dressing room with a "C" on his jersey, he was chosen by his teammates and coaches to be the team Captain. I jumped up off my chair and couldn't wipe the smile off my face when I saw the text. My boy was Captain. He may not be playing in the best league, on the best team or even be the best player in town, but regardless I knew The Lord was showing us something. As I sat down to get in the Word, I was still staring at the picture Jamie had sent, I felt The Lord say, "Those who honour me, I will honour.' Wow. He was showing His faithfulness once again.
This was a major decision we had to make with our son. The Lord had given Him to us, and we had vowed to give him back to the Lord. Hunter never kicked and screamed when we asked him to lay hockey down, he was disappointed and yet when we shared our hearts on why, he chose to be understanding. Parents I want to encourage you, when we lay something down we don't know how long we'll have to lay it down for, but we have to trust him. I never really thought much about it over the seven years, but we knew that missing church for hockey wasn't an option. There's many things The Lord will ask us to lay down along the way and some things will definitely be harder than others. My number one responsibility as a mom isn't to raise a hockey player, but to raise a son that will put God first in all he does.
Last night when he walked in the door after the game it was as if all the years of laying it down didn't matter, because The Lord made it clear we as a family had made the right decision in honouring Him first.
H
(A huge thank-you to Kevin Furtney for starting up the Armour Hockey League, which allows so many young players to play on Saturdays instead of Sundays. We are thankful that each year this league has grown and this year our littles have the opportunity to play! Don't despise small beginnings, many families, churches and players are blessed by this league.)
As a young boy Hunter was always found in his boxers, with his hockey helmet on and his stick in his hand. He lived and breathed it. His dream, like many canadian boys was to play in big leagues when he was older.
The next year when Hunter was seven we could no longer avoid it. If he wanted to play hockey, he needed to play Sundays which meant major conflicts with church. As ones who served in the church and with Jamie being a competitive hockey player we knew this was one of the many difficult choices we would need to make as parents. Our desire as parents is to put Christ first in every area of our lives, and to teach our children to the do the same. What? That meant telling our all canadian boy he couldn't play hockey? Yes, that's exactly what that meant. This was not only heart breaking for us, but especially for him. Year after year at registration time he would ask if he could play, and year after year we were faced with the same news, game days in our zone were on Sundays.
Finally, the moment we'd all been waiting for came. After seven years we got a lead on a league that didn't require his age group to play on Sundays. HALLELUJAH! Hunter was pumped! After a month of evaluations, practices and exhibition games the season began. Hunter was placed on a team not knowing anyone, but he didn't seem to care because was finally playing hockey! After the first game his team and coaches gathered and had a meeting, voting in the team captain.....the captain would be announced before they hit the ice at the next game.
I wasn't able to attend the game last night, but all of a sudden my phone lit up and this is what I saw.
Hunter walked out of the dressing room with a "C" on his jersey, he was chosen by his teammates and coaches to be the team Captain. I jumped up off my chair and couldn't wipe the smile off my face when I saw the text. My boy was Captain. He may not be playing in the best league, on the best team or even be the best player in town, but regardless I knew The Lord was showing us something. As I sat down to get in the Word, I was still staring at the picture Jamie had sent, I felt The Lord say, "Those who honour me, I will honour.' Wow. He was showing His faithfulness once again.
This was a major decision we had to make with our son. The Lord had given Him to us, and we had vowed to give him back to the Lord. Hunter never kicked and screamed when we asked him to lay hockey down, he was disappointed and yet when we shared our hearts on why, he chose to be understanding. Parents I want to encourage you, when we lay something down we don't know how long we'll have to lay it down for, but we have to trust him. I never really thought much about it over the seven years, but we knew that missing church for hockey wasn't an option. There's many things The Lord will ask us to lay down along the way and some things will definitely be harder than others. My number one responsibility as a mom isn't to raise a hockey player, but to raise a son that will put God first in all he does.
Last night when he walked in the door after the game it was as if all the years of laying it down didn't matter, because The Lord made it clear we as a family had made the right decision in honouring Him first.
H
(A huge thank-you to Kevin Furtney for starting up the Armour Hockey League, which allows so many young players to play on Saturdays instead of Sundays. We are thankful that each year this league has grown and this year our littles have the opportunity to play! Don't despise small beginnings, many families, churches and players are blessed by this league.)
1 comment:
I love it! We've walked the same path. I'm going to get my boys to read this. God is faithful! Thanks for sharing!
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