Gem of the Week

I don’t know about you, but I happen to be in love with soccer! Everything about soccer is amazing, to me. If you ever see me in person and want to talk, just ask me who my favorite soccer player is, what my favorite soccer team is, and if I like Argentina or France better.

I guess I could go ahead and tell you that I like Messi, Mbappe, and Neymar and I loved Argentina and was very thrilled when they won the World Cup. But that’s not what I’m here to talk about. That’s just the background you need to know - that I like soccer.

Once, during soccer practice, we were playing a game. Now, I had become captain of one of the teams and I picked very wisely. I got the two best players (and because I was one of the best there, that made three). We had a great team! It was awesome!

But sometimes, the best team doesn’t necessarily mean you win. The other team scored quickly. I was kind of mad because my team wasn’t doing what I had told them to do, and that was why we were losing. But my team started pulling it together, and we got another goal. We were now tied with the other team 1-1. The game was going on and on and on! I was getting tired - I think everyone was.

Finally, we got something encouraging. There was an out near the goal. No, it wasn’t a corner kick but it was an out and pretty close to the goal we were trying to get the ball into. My brother (one of the good players), took the ball to throw it in. I ran to where there was a lot of space and got ready to receive it. But then my brother had a “better” idea. He threw it to the other best player who didn’t have a lot of space.

I was unhappy but whatever - that ball was out. However, the other best player had no room to keep the ball and it was soon stolen. Before I continue with the story, though, I have to tell you one important fact. And also, if you don’t know what an “offside” is, I suggest you look it up!

Basically, on the other team, there was this boy who was pretty bad. He’d never scored a goal before, and really just ruined the game sometimes. He was really small and was from India so sometimes he didn’t understand things. Maybe he was born in the US, but his culture was still different. But we let him play with us because he loved soccer.

Well, this little boy decided to go into an offside position. I’m not certain he knew (or still knows) that it was offside, but he went there and stood waiting for the ball. Our team quickly told the coach it was an offside but I guess he wasn’t listening or something because nothing happened. I briefly thought about guarding him, but, anyways, it was offside so he couldn’t score a goal from that position.

When the other team got the ball they shot it up to him and he ran with it. I remember trying to catch up before he shot a hard kick that sent the ball flying into the goal. That was very maddening but I was sure it would be taken away as an offside.

“That was offside!” my team cried.

“No that’s definitely a goal. I don’t even know what an offside is,” someone from the other team argued.

“That doesn’t matter because it was offside,” my team continued.

“I thought about guarding him but because it was an offside I didn’t,” I shouted.

Then our coach calmed us down and proceed to give us a speech on offsides. First, he obviously explained what it was for those who had no earthly idea what it was. Then what he said made my team (and unfortunately me, too) boil with anger.

“Because this game is a small-scale, we are not playing with offsides so that technically was a goal,” he said.

“But we didn’t know that,” my team was very angry! I was too, though.

“Yay!” the other team exclaimed, going around and hugging each other. They were obviously elated with the news. But my team was not! We finally manipulated them into penalty kicks which we won because of our better aim - we had the better players.

Everything was so maddening about that game. I was partly mad at my team for not doing what I had originally told them to do because I was the captain. They had done their own ideas and the other team had immediately scored a goal. I was also angry because the little boy’s goal still stood. It was offside. It was soooooooooooo unfair!

But, you know, it was just a game. It wasn’t even a big competition like the World Cup. Yet my team made it into basically a mini World Cup. We made it a BIG competition and argued about every decision (I spared you the details of the previous discussions). So, as you might imagine, when the other team got a goal against us, we were mad as hornets. And, also, when the little boy got a goal we were exceedingly angry.

As you might imagine, when they “won” we decided we had tied and made them do penalty kicks. I must admit we did kind of make it unfair penalty kicks for them so that we could win. But why not? They had illegally gotten a goal, so we were just making it fair.

When things are unfair we tend to boil up and argue. But did Jesus do that? Many things for Him were unfair. He had many unfair trials before being led to the cross. And did He try to punch and kick the soldiers? He could have, because He had so much power. He healed the sick and resurrected the dead, but He didn’t retaliate.

We need to be more like Jesus. Not like me! But Jesus is the perfect example of how to deal with those who make you angry. And, yes, you can pray that Jesus will give me another chance to practice being slow to anger.

~Alice