You Never Know Who You'll Impact!

You never know how you’re going to impact someone, so never judge, never quit, and never stop believing in yourself. 

One of the things I love to do is coach Little League. I coach the kids who are just getting into the league where kids pitch to each other, and sometimes that’s very intimidating for these youngsters. 

We held our first practice this week, and the kids looked like you would’ve expected - as though they haven’t seen a field in over a year. 

But one of the adults was seeming to have difficulty getting her boy to the field as we were getting started. She finally walked over, and she was an elderly lady with a very concerned look on her face. 

“Bobby is too embarrassed to come over and play, Coach,” she started. 

“He forgot his glove, and I am ashamed that I forgot to get it for him too, so now he’s mad at me and doesn’t want to come to his first practice without a glove.”

Well, I look at baseball as a parable to life: you can’t get anything accomplished without first showing up. 

“Bobby!” I hollered. “Come on over bud! We have a glove here for you, so let’s have some fun.”

No luck. He peeked out from behind a car and immediately ducked back in. 

I found out it was Bobby’s grandma who brought him to practice, so I told her I had extra gear and that if she could convince him it’s not a big deal, he can come play with us. 

He did, and after that he dusted the cobwebs off and seemed to have a good time. 

Well, the next practice, Bobby showed up looking like a ball player - glove in hand ready to go. His grandma came over to me to tell me something.

“Coach,” she said, “I can’t tell you how thankful I am for what you do. You see...” her voice cracked a little and I saw tears welling up in her eyes as she spoke. 

“Bobby doesn’t have a father in his life. He’s very shy, and his mom works a lot. This past year he hasn’t had much fun and hasn’t made any friends, so he was terrified to come to practice. He didn’t know what to expect and didn’t know if there would be any friends here.

But when we got home after practice, he told his mom and me both that he had the best time of his life! He was beaming from ear to ear, and couldn’t wait to get back to the field. He even said he wanted to skip his spring break vacation so he didn’t miss practice!

So I can’t tell you enough how much you doing this means to me, but especially how much it means to Bobby!”

You never know who you’re going to impact or how, but if you show up, chances are you’ll make a difference.