Success

  

When my boys were younger, they played Little League Baseball and I managed many of their teams. I found that in teaching the kids about the fundamentals of the game and developing their individual talents and abilities to work together and strive to win, there was more than just playing. But, an integral element to growing into being the best player that they could be, was to demand disciple and establish a mindset of self-esteem, confidence and loyalty as a path to success. The game is both physical and mental. I wasn’t only developing ballplayers, but I was developing the next generation to succeed in life with principles that crossed into every area of life.

 

I found these three D’s to success somewhere and sat the whole team before practice to go over them [along with other motivational training]. The First “D” is for Dedication, meaning the act of devoting or giving to wholeheartedly developing and improving oneself in all aspects and situations as a ballplayer and as a team member. The Second “D” is for Devotion, meaning the state of being dedicated, consecrated, or solemnly set apart for a particular purpose as an act of reverence, respect, ardent love and affection. The central focus is on doing “rightly” to the best of their ability because they want  and like to. The third “D” is for Desire, meaning a passion excited by the love of perfecting your skills and knowledge of the game, directed to its attainment or possession. Desire is a wish to possess some gratification or source of happiness which is obtainable. The kids win, even if they lose the game because success is defined as the favorable or prosperous termination of anything attempted which answers the purpose intended. It is a philosophy that we all could use in life that is based on individual growth and maturity for the common good.

 

But, there is another aspect on the three D’s to success that need to be applied to our spiritual life. First is dedication - The act of consecrating to a divine Being, or to a sacred use, often with religious solemnities; solemn appropriation. Dedicated to God, the Holy Scriptures, to Christ’s church which He established, following in reverent obedience for the purposes of the Kingdom of Heaven. Second is devotion - A solemn attention to the Supreme Being in worship; a yielding of the heart and affections to God, with reverence, faith and piety, in religious duties, particularly in prayer and meditation; devoutness. Third is desire - An emotion or excitement of the mind, directed to the attainment or possession of serving the Lord from which joy, sensual, intellectual or spiritual, is expected; a longing for God, that His purposes ae achieved on earth and that He receive all the glory. 

 

With the three “D’s” to success, we can never fail.

In Christ, Brian