Better than baseball and apple pie?

          “Football and religion are two of the greatest things we have in this country, and there should be no problem with them coinciding.” Sports Columnist, Wes O’Donnell wrote these words to end an article entitled “Has Tim Tebow taken Faith too far into Football?”(1). This article proceeds to argue the exact opposite of what I was expecting from the title. Mr. O’Donnell went on to talk about a journalist who took Tebow’s words on faith out of context and basically made him out to be saying that if he has enough faith then God was definitely going to start him in the NFL (Tebow did not say this). Of course there are going to be people who are going to bash Tebow’s clear display of Christ in his life; it’s Biblical that there are going to be those who will want to persecute Christians, especially 24 year old quarterback Christians who play for the Denver Broncos.

          Well, you may be wondering why I was looking up articles about Tim Tebow in the first place...I do live in Colorado people, so come on now...I mean I tried to find a Tebow shirt/jersey to bring home for my brother and there were NONE...anywhere! In fact my students make fun of me for liking Tim Tebow so much; in addition to them making fun of my northern O’s (mOm, dOll, hip hOp...yes I have said all three of those words in my classroom) and my awesome driving skills...Yes, I am sure I am quite the role-model for them. Sometimes I think I forget that I have 100 middle school students watching me five days a week and if I like it or not, I AM going to be a role-model for them. That is something I really respect about Tebow, I feel like he completely understands the fact that God has gifted him with certain abilities and assets to be that role-model for an entire nation (well at least a football loving nation).

Decided to be eco-friendly and instead of throwing
this in the garbage of the staff lounge...I brought it to
Michigan for my dad to read..proved to be great inspiration
for a brand new blog post.

     Journalist, Pat Forde, stated in an ESPN article: “Most of us are lucky to know what we want to do by the time we get to college; Tebow found his twin passions -- pigskin and preaching -- about the time he entered grade school” (2). I believe Tebow is using not only his words to preach, but also his actions. Forde quoted Tebow’s response to various reporters bashing his faith when he wrote, “There's always going to be naysayers, people that are going to say it's fake. But that's fine because you can't control everybody. But I can control what I do, my attitude, how I approach the situation. So how I approach the situation is I want to do everything in my power that football gives me to influence as many people as I can for the good because that's gonna mean so much more when it's all said and done than just playing football and winning championships” (2). Woah, heart check time! Seriously, God has given us certain abilities and it’s about how we use those abilities; it’s not about winning, making money, or being the best of the best. How easy is it to put our jobs and ourselves into that quote:

“I (AMANDA) can control what I do, my attitude, how I approach the situation. So how I approach the situation is I want to do everything in my power that TEACHING and WRITING gives me to influence as many people as I can for the good because that’s gonna mean so much more when it’s all said and done than just preparing lessons, grading papers, etc.”

So, Tim Tebow, thanks for that most excellent win last Thursday night, but not only that...thank you for letting God use you to spread your faith and reminding me how my words and actions can influence those around me.

“Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.” Ephesians 4:29


Check out these articles:
1.) http://tigerreport.blogspot.com/2011/08/wes-odonnell-has-tim-tebow-taken-faith.html

2.) http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?columnist=forde_pat&id=3812762&sportCat=ncf
3.) http://www.bpsports.net/bpsports.asp?ID=5657