Note: I took some pictures at one of Isaac's games and I'm posting some of them. They're not the best (grainy), but they're all I've got, unfortunately.
Friday night, I received a lesson while attending the temple. Saturday morning it was Isaac who extended the lesson for me. Toward the end of last year, Isaac came home with a flier for a community basketball league and we decided to enroll him in it. Isaac waffled back and forth about it, but with his expressed desire to play high school football, we thought this would be a good opportunity to give him a taste of playing with a team as well as a chance to interact with different people and improve his interpersonal and basketball skills. Yesterday was the seventh game of the "season" for Isaac's team (their final game is next Saturday). They were playing a team they had already faced twice (there are four teams in the league). Isaac's team--the Bulldogs--were beaten by this team in the first game of the season, but the Bulldogs won the second game. I guess you could say this was the "rubber game" of the match.
Throughout the course of the season, as I've attended his practices and games, I've noticed several things about my youngest son: 1) he takes coaching advice well and tries his hardest to implement what is being asked of him; 2) he is good at defense (I am reminded of the scene in the movie Hoosiers when Coach Dale tells Buddy to think of his man as chewing gum ("By the end of the game, I want to know what flavor his is.") and after Buddy fouls out of the game, Coach Dale looks at him until he says: "Dentyne;" and 3) he shots the ball in a two-handed set shot style.
Isaac has improved every game. When I've given him little pointers--after games or practices--he has tried to use them. The coaches, a husband and wife team who have been the best coaches either of my sons have had in the community sports teams they've played on, have seen how hard he tries and have praised him for his defense and hustle. In order to understand how these games are played, each 10 minute quarter is divided into two 5 minute halves. This allows all the team member to play. The clock is only stopped if a timeout is called. In the first 5 minute segment, the coaches made the first tactical error I've seen all season by placing both their point guards on the floor with the first group, leaving the second group (which included Isaac) without a ball handler. The opposing coach, sensing this, put a full court press on Isaac's group which allowed for several steals and subsequent baskets. By the time the buzzer rang to end the second 5 minute half of the first quarter, the Bulldogs were behind by 12 points. The tactical error was corrected for the beginning of the second quarter, but even so, the opposing team repelled any attempt at a comeback and by the end of quarter two, the deficit had increased to 13.
I don't know what the coaches said during the 3 minute and 30 second half time, but an inspired team appeared at the beginning of the third quarter. They played defense harder and they attacked the basket on offense better. Their efforts were rewarded as they slowly began to chip away at the lead. Minute by minute the game became more and more intense as the Bulldogs worked to reel in their opponent. By the end of the third quarter, the deficit was 7 points (if memory serves). Isaac was part of the group sent on the court for the first half of the forth quarter. As those 5 minutes ticked away, the Bulldogs put on a full court press of their own. They were able to get a couple of steals and whittle the deficit down to 3. The two teams traded a few basket until a score by the opposing team raised their lead to 5. The Bulldogs brought the ball back to their side of the court. As the clock wound down, the ball was passed and batted around until it landed in Isaac's hands.
Up to this point, Isaac had played the most aggressively I had seen him play all season. He secured a rebound; he made a steal; he was getting in the mix when the ball came his way; he'd even taken a shot that, unfortunately, was an air ball. Earlier, he had been called for a technical when he twice put his hands across the out of bounds line while guarding the inbounding player--he didn't know he couldn't do that and ref didn't say anything other than make a hand motion--but he shook off the mistake quickly. It was great to see. When the ball landed in his hands, he found himself wide open, so he took another shot, a three pointer . . . and it swished through. You would have thought he'd just made the winning shot. Although the basket dropped the deficit to 2 points, the crowd erupted, and Isaac's team erupted as the first 5 minute half of the fourth quarter expired. I nearly came to tears as I watched Isaac's teammates tell him "good shot." He went to do a "low five" with his coach and they were both so amped they missed each other's hand. Isaac's grin was as big and bright as the sun. People talk about momentum in sports. Isaac's basket deflated the opponent and gave his team a huge boost. By the end of the game, the Bulldogs had won by 10 points--I'm not sure, but I don't think the opposing team scored another basket (possibly one, but no more)."What is the lesson?" you may be asking. As I mentioned, Isaac has slowly improved each week. I have watched his coaches place him in situations to give him the best chance to succeed. He isn't the top scorer or the flashy player; nor is his contributions likely to be found in the "box scores" at the end of the game, but with each game, he has done his best. Sometimes, he's made mistakes--like when the man he was supposed to be guarding slipped past him to score a basket or when he got the technical for putting his hands over the out of bounds line. For the most part, however, his small and simple efforts have helped his team and his teammates have noticed his contribution--which is why they reacted so positively when his two handed set shot swished through the net and pulled them within 2 points of their opponent. After the game, as I ran some errands, this scene I've described became an extension of what the sealer said to our group at the end of our temple session Friday night. It reminded me of a quote from President Boyd K. Packer that I read when I give the temple preparation lessons: "When you come to the temple and receive your endowment, and kneel at the altar and be sealed, you can live an ordinary life and be an ordinary soul—struggling against temptation, failing and repenting, and failing again and repenting, but always determined to keep your covenants. … Then the day will come when you will receive the benediction: ‘Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things; enter thou into the joy of thy lord’ (Matthew 25:21)" (Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled [1991], 257).
For many of us our lives are "ordinary" (no paparazzi chasing us everywhere; not one caring what we are wearing or where we are going or who we are with). We may wonder if our small efforts--our faithfulness--makes any difference. In those moments, however, it will help if we remember what Alma told his son, Helaman, that "by small and simple things are great things brought to pass; and small means in many instances doth confound the wise" (Alma 37:6). If we endure faithful to the end, our "ordinary" lives will be worth much more than the wealthiest, most famous, or most powerful person who ever lived in mortality. To be embraced by the Savior at the end of our earthly journey will give us much the same feeling Isaac had after he drained that shot (probably trillions of times greater). Our smile, at that moment, will be as big and bright as the sun. Even though our lives may have been "ordinary," we will "inherit all things" (Revelation 21:7). I am thankful for my sons and the lessons they teach me. I hope I will be worthy of that embrace and benediction when I stand before my Father and my Elder Brother.
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