For the love of the game...

This is a re post from last year...but with us starting basketball season tomorrow I wanted to post it again...for the love of the game:

It has been a busy couple of months in the Blazi house. We have ended soccer and basketball is now starting. The three oldest will be playing and Ric and I are coaching all three of them. WE are so excited, but know that it is going to be mayhem around our home! We love being involved in the sports program at our church though...it is crazy rewarding to be able to share Christ with these little ones...and teach them the best game that was ever created!

When I was in the third grade something happened the day I picked up that leather  basketball. I fell in love with the game. I lived and breathed all things basketball. I decided that year...yes, at the ripe old age of 8, that I was going to play college basketball...Division 1 at that. I set a goal and was going to do whatever I had to do to reach it. I worked hard...and I mean hard. Every summer was spent away at camp just trying to get better. Early mornings were spent on the track and afternoons in the gym...just so I could play ball in college. Little did I know that God had a  perfect plan layed out the whole time! I ended my career at my high school and went on to sign a full scholarship with Liberty University in Virginia. The school that I never wanted to go to...that I made fun of...the school that was literally 7 miles from my house...was where I went. I woke up one morning and knew that was where I was supposed to go. I could have gone to several other schools to play, but for some reason I knew I was supposed to go to LU!

I went and didn't play much my first year and decided that summer that I was going to work my hind end off to get a starting position. That fall I got saved...Jesus took me off the path to hell and put me on the path to heaven. I surrendered my life to Christ on the basketball court during a convocation service in the gym...the very place that had been my god for so long was where I surrendered my life to God . Not only did my life change...but so did my outlook on the game of basketball. No longer was it just a game, but a tool to reach the lost. I wanted to play ball and share the Gospel with my opponents. I wanted to glorify God in not just my life, but my basketball as well.

Needless to say, God used my basketball ability to give me the opportunity to share Christ with a whole bunch of people! I shared after games....during press conferences...with children in Spain.....and now with the kids that I will have the opportunity to coach.  Every practice I have the blessing of teaching these kids(most of them are unchurched) God's word.  We are learning the Ten Commandments and it's way cool. It's amazing how one game can do so much in a persons life! I will forever be grateful that I picked up that leather ball in the third grade! That I was a determined young girl...and that God used the game to change my life! I pray that me teaching these young kids about the game...will not just point them to basketball, but to a Holy God!  And I do what I do, not just for the love of the game...but for the cause of Christ!