by Cyndi

It’s that time of year again-fall soccer season.  A time for sunshine, grass stains, Gatorade and muddy cleats.  As I was praying for my son’s upcoming game this week, the thought occurred to me, “I bet God has a soccer mom’s heart”.  What is a soccer mom’s heart? It’s one that wants to protect their baby from getting hurt, yet wants to see them excel and grow into maturity. It’s one that yells from the sideline to play hard, yet is in anguish inside when she sees her child fallen on the field. It’s a heart that desires her child to be the best that they can be, yet without having to “perform” to be loved. They love their child, win or lose, clean or dirty.

A soccer mom takes their child to practice, washes their smelly uniforms, and stands out in the rain during games with a poncho from Sea World on, much to the child’s embarrassment.  She screams, she cheers, watching and encouraging. And not all the focus is about scoring a goal. Yes, it is great when it’s your child that scores the winning goal, but not everyone is supposed to be a forward and shoot. (You see, you learn all these terms for the positions when you are a soccer mom.) There are forwards, midfields, wings, goalies, different positions with different jobs to do on the team; but we moms just want them to do their best and give it their all in whatever position they play.

I believe that is how God feels about us. I think He does have a soccer mom’s heart. He is always there for us, taking us through “practices”, cleaning up our “stuff” when we get dirty, encouraging us to play harder and run faster. He is also always there when we walk off the field after an agonizing defeat, putting His arm around our shoulders saying how proud He was of us for hanging in there and trying our best.  And best of all, He is always there to support us even if we just sit on the bench and never get in the game. He loves us no matter what, win or lose, clean or dirty.