Mr Music has been alternately pitching and catching on his Little League team this year, and doing a good job at both.
So tonight at snack, because he loves sound, I asked which he likes better: the sound of the bat hitting the ball, or the sound of the ball thwonking into the catcher's mitt. He said, "Both" and I have to agree. They are both sweet sounds when your own son is on the right side of them.
Catching is a dirty, dusty business and lets a mom feel what it would be like to be Pigpen's Mom IRL. You have to wash everything, even the cap, after each game, and find yourself wishing grey were the Official Team Colour. And in the course of the discussion about sounds, I learned one more reason it is so dirty: Mr Music went on to say he rubs extra dust on his mitt so that "when he catches the ball, there is a big *poof!* of dirt."
It is amazing how God uses your children to teach you things. Mr Music has quite an arm, and, according to his coach, "nerves of steel." (That quote after he struck out three batters after the bases were loaded. And then struck out three the next inning, too.) But, anyhow, his pitching is good, with one caveat, and it is a biggie. He HAS to keep his eye on the mitt. If he looks away, or thinks about who is standing at bat (a former team-mate; a kid he has pegged in the past; another pitcher who scares him), the pitch goes wild and is worthless. We have had a lot of discussions about keeping our focus on Jesus. I am reminding myself to keep my own focus on Christ and what obedience requires, one pitch at a time, without thinking about what appears to be between me and Christ.
Hebrews 12:1-2 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
