This year we tried something a bit crazy at our household – we fit a speech and debate tournament into that window of time between Thanksgiving and Christmas. A new club here in Arkansas was hosting, and we wanted to support it – so off we went to John Brown University in the northwestern part of the state. This tournament was only a Friday/Saturday event, as opposed to the usually Thursday-Saturday schedule so Eric was even able to come along – his first ‘travel tournament’ with us. As usual, we learned about a lot more than just speech and debate at this event – there are always life lessons to be found! I’d like to share just two with you.
First, each of our three girls are participating again this year – and all are doing great! The lesson here, though is that ‘great’ is different for each girl. Some of Charissa’s greatest moments are helping out those new to the competition. She even got a comment on one of her debate ballots from the judge thanking her and her more experienced partner for dealing kindly with their very new, nervous, and less prepared opposing team. Brenna’s greatest moments are when she is able to overcome her own fears and nerves by walking in the room to compete. Amanda showed her ‘greatness’ this time with her servant attitude by helping in timing each and every senior competitor round even though she was also competing in juniors – a lot of extra work just to support her older sisters and friends in seniors. So often in life I find myself or my girls playing the comparison game – only thinking we are doing well if we are doing better than the person next to us. I think the lesson of doing one’s own best is so valuable – forgetting the comparison game!
The second lesson I’ll mention is a bit more specific to this event – you see, the tournament director made a blunder of not getting the awards that he had ordered for the event out of the mail-room of the university on a Friday, and he could not get in on Saturday when he went to set up the awards table. In an effort to be creative, he found a stash of JBU coffee mugs, and handed one out for each and every award announced. With three relatively successful kids in the competition, the Riedy family ended up with 11 mugs on the table when all was said and done! There was a moment at the end of the evening when I looked at the table and thought, “Am I really going to have to bring home 11 of these university promotion mugs?!? Can’t I just leave most of them on the table?” Then I noticed the number of kids walking out without any mugs! As I gathered up each mug, I thought of my lesson learned. How often do we look at the things that God gives us in life and act like, “Really God, that is my reward?!? Do I really need to take it?” instead of realizing how blessed we are to have what we have been given.
Though doing this event during this holiday season has put us a bit behind in Christmas preparation, I think these kinds of lessons learned make some of the best gifts!
