When you hear the word hero what images come to your mind? I often think of who my hero’s are and how they have affected my life in profound ways.  This week I added another hero to my short list.  Chris Spielman was once one of the premier athletes in the National Football League.  I remember as a young man coming into the NFL in 1995 watching one of the best defensive players make plays week after week.  Then in 1998 this gridiron great stepped away from football after 10 years to take care of his wife  Stefanie, who was diagnosed with breast cancer.  He even saved his head when she began to lose her hair from the chemotheraphy.

Stefanie lost her battle last Thursday after a decade of fighting the filthy beast of cancer.  She died at the young age of 42.  Ironically, last week a federal task force for the government came out saying that women shouldn’t have mamograms until they are 50, which is 10 years later than previously suggested.  I won’t even waste time commenting on that ridiculous bit of information!

Chris is my hero!  He made a self-less decision to leave the applause of the world to win the applause of his immediate family.  He stands as a giant in the eyes of their four children who cannot yet possibly understand what their dad gave up to suport the woman that he loved.  Chris just set a generational legacy of faithfullness that will echo for some time to come in the Spielman family.

In Ephesians 5:1-2 the Apostle Paul urges us to “be imitators of God as dear children and walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.”  As I read this touching story of my new hero Chris Spielman, I smell Jesus Christ all over his life. 

The holiday season is in full swing and many are begining their preparations for the Christmas season.  My wife and I actually started our christmas shopping for our kids yesterday.  We visited the local Best Buy and almost got into an argument in the video game isle over which games we would buy our girls this year.  My wife Yannette found a game that was on sale and thought it would be a good xmas gift.  I however had talked to our daughter earlier in the week and so I knew the one that she really wanted.  Of coarse that one was $20 more in price.  We ended up leaving the store without any games.  Once I got home I got to thinking, when did I get this whole thing twisted?  My girls should be happy with whatever I buy them.  But I know the truth, which is they won’t be happy with whatever we buy them, because they feel like they should get what they want.

The culture has changed over the last 15 years.  Used to be that we were thankful for whatever we could get from our parents, now there is a spirit of entitlement that is prevalent amongst our children.  Especially our teens.  Trying to keep up with the Jones’ is not just a statement, it has become a way of life. 

I always find it amusing when one of my daughters says to me, “but everyone else has it.”  Its as if we are bad parents if our kids don’t have everything that every other kid has.  Well this holiday season I am making a vow to ”take it back to the old school.”  Like a preacher friend of mine always says, “brother preacher, there ain’t no school, like the ole school!”  I want my girls to have a sense of thanksgiving instead of a spirit of entitlement.  Besides if I don’t teach them, then who will?

Proverbs 22:6 says, “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.”  What are you training your children for?  A spirit of thanksgiving or one of entitlement.

Every athlete dreams of the day that they can have their name mentioned on ESPN.  However, no player wants their name mentioned in a negative light.  Such is the case for New Mexico’s Elizabeth Lambert, who has been suspended indefinetly from the University of New Mexico’s womens soccer team for her unsportmanslike conduct during a match against BYU.  Lambert made ESPN by her malicious actions during the game in which she pulled the pony tail of BYU’s Kassidy Shumway. 

Lambert says after the incident “I am deeply and wholeheartedly regreatful for my actions.  My actions were uncalled for.  I let my emotions get the best of me in a heated situation.”  She goes on to say, “This is in no way indicative of my character or the soccer player that I am.”  Seriously? 

Nothing will reveal who we truly are more than heated situations.  We all tend to try to excuse away our bad behavior because of the situation that we were in.  Saying, “anyone would have reacted the way I did, don’t you agree?” But the truth is what’s in the heart comes out of our mouths and affects how we act. Matthew 12:34 For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.  Verse 35 goes on to say, “a good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things.”

What we do is a direct indicator of who we are.  So no Elizabeth, that person that we saw on ESPN lowlights is exactly who you truly are.  That is why we all need to make sure that we are constantly guarding our hearts. (Proverbs 4:23)

The ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of two teenage girls aganist their local high school.  The girls were banned from all extra curricular activities for a supposed joke that didn’t involve the school, says the ACLU. Reports say that two 14 year old girls during the summer made a tape of themselves in lingerie while acting like they were performing oral sex on a banana.  Then they posted the pictures on their myspace page.  Someone copied the picutures and reported them to school officials, who then suspended the girls from the first quarter of school extra curricular activities.  Sounds like a fair punishment to me.However, some legal experts say that in this digital era, schools must accept that students will engage in some questionable behavior in cyberspace and during off hours.  I guess that means that we should overlook all things that are done as long as they are done off campus right? I should tell you that the school has an athletic code which allows the principal to ban from school activities any student-athlete whose behavior in or out of shcool, creates a disruptive influence on the discipline, good order or moral and educational environment at the school. These girls were athletes.  And as such they have a responsibility to represent themselves and the school in a positive way.We as Christians are also held to a higher standard.   1 Timothy 4:12 tells us to be an example to believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith and in purity.  I don’t know whether these girls are christians or not, but if you are, what kind of example are you displaying on a daily basis?  Like my mama always said, “boy what’s done in the dark always comes to light.”