So as you all should know I love Sports. NFL, College, NHL, MLB, NBA, Soccer, you name it I probably follow it. They are my passion. That has probably been the hardest part about being on a mission is not being able to follow sports like I used to. So therefore I am going to write about what I love and apply it into our lives today. It will be a series of blogs. I have no idea how many parts there will be but ill go until i run out of ideas. I will relate Sports to the gospel of Jesus Christ and give short uplifting inspirational stories from different athletes.
Here is a brief summary about the different sports I follow closely why I like them and so on..
Football: My favorite. I love football the game the people the athletes just everything about it. I love being in a packed house filled with 60,000 plus fans all screaming and cheering on there team. Nothing much beats it hands down. My favorite team for professional football would be the Arizona Cardinals on a college level it would be the Arizona State Sun Devils.
Hockey: Lately I have grown a love for hockey. I dont know what sparked this but it is an amazing sport. It is very fast pace, and someone is always looking to knock somebody's head off. My favorite team is the Phoenix Coyotes.
Baseball: Americas Pastime! I love baseball. I will be the first to admit its not really a very "exciting" of a sport but nothing really compares to grabbing a hot dog, a drink, and a bag of sunflower seads then going and watching a game. It is very chill and very fun. Favorite team: Arizona Diamondbacks
Basketball: very high scoring. Fast, up the court as fast as they go down the court. if they work as a team it can be very exciting to watch. Favorite team: Phoenix Suns.
Soccer: The worlds sport! I love World Cup time. It is a very exciting time to have nation against nation! nothing brings the world together like this sport. Wars stop to watch. Cool huh? favorite team: United States National Team.
Any ideas or inspritinal stories for this Blog? send me an email at max.elmer@myldsmail.net or add me on facebook! www.facebook.com/max.elmer (also there is a link to my facebook in the top left corner of the blog)
The Gospel, According to a Sports Guy: Part 1
What is one of the most important things when it comes to sports? To put it simple confidence. You got to have confidence in yourself and in your teammates. If you dont have confidence and think that you will lose. You will. Having confidence does not mean however that you cant put forth the work and practice required to win. For me having confidence in sports is knowing that you worked harder then the other guy. Knowing that your hard work is going to put forth results that are required with wining. Just like in sports how hard work and confidence are connected. Its like that with every aspect of our lives.
One thing that i have learned on my mission is to have confidence. I have learned to lean more on god and trust in him. I have learned that if i am doing what i should be the results will come. I have confidence that if I choose whats right god will help me out. It is that simple. If we obey gods commandments he will bless us. when we run into trouble is when we only obey his commandments 90% of the time. Relating this back to sports its like only putting forth 90% of the effort. It would be like taking it easy when the coach isn't looking or doing one less set. It just dosnt work like that! why would god work like that? I love this scripture which is found in the Doctrine and Covenants. It reads: "There is a law, irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated And when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated" (Doctirine and Covenants 130: 20-21.)
Just like how In sports we only get what we put into it. we only get from god what we put into it. does that make since? let me resay that. You want blessings from god? you got to obey his commandments. Like i said in my previous blog it is not enough to "Confess Christ" then to fall back into the ways of the world. That would be like having a one win season. thats not good.
Lets all have more Confidence in god and know that he will bless us. we just got to put forth the effort like an athlete does to his sport.
Any ideas or inspritinal stories for this Blog? send me an email at max.elmer@myldsmail.net or send me a message on facebook! www.facebook.com/max.elmer (also there is a link to my facebook in the top left corner of the blog)
The Gospel, According to a Sports Guy: Part 2
Practice. Yes we are not talking about the game we are talking about practice. What does practice do for you? Well simply put practice makes the game. Every athlete puts countless amount of hours into their sport before they even have a game. Yes that means work. Practice most of the time is not something you look forward to. I remember during my football days I really did not look forward to running around with 30 pounds of pads in 110 degree weather (Im from Arizona so it was really hot). However though the more you put into it the more you get out of it. (amazing how that works.) What my coaches would always tell us is that "practice does not make perfect" (contrary to the popular saying "practice makes perfect"). They would always tell us "Perfect practice makes perfect." If you dont put your all into practice then it is just going threw the motions. You get nothing out of that. so how can we have "perfect practice" in our life?
I am going to relate practice to scripture reading. Yes scripture reading. It is something most of us probably dont look forward to during the day. However, like practice, it is very important. It is what gets us ready for the "game" we all call life. Well why do we have scriptures? In the book of Romans it says: "For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope." (Romans 15: 4) So there where written for our learning and our benefit. The scriptures will help us in our life. They where written for our day. many people have given up there lives so we can have these records. They gave up their lives so we can have the "practice" we need to go throughout our life with peace and comfort.
Just like in practicing for a sport we need to have perfect practice in scripture study. this means just not going threw the motions. we need to study it with all our hearts in it. it doesn't do as any good just to blow threw it and just think "well that was a nice story." we need to study it with all our strength and relate it to us in our lives today. that is what they where written for.
May we have "perfect practice" in our lifes by reading and studying from the scriptures with a full and open heart.
Any ideas or inspirational stories for this Blog? send me an email at max.elmer@myldsmail.net or send me a message on facebook! www.facebook.com/max.elmer (also there is a link to my facebook in the top left corner of the blog)
The Gospel, According to a Sports Guy: Part 3
Football is not a contact sport. It is a collision sport! I love football. It is by far my favorite sport to watch. The big hits, the wonderful runs, the precision passes, a stadium filled with 70000 fans screaming their head off! It is awesome! Who couldn't like football? Anyways to my point in order to play football you got to be smart. Yes football players are not just big dumb jocks. Id be willing to say that football is one of the most complex sports. You got to make sure your in the right place at the right time because if not, the offense is going to hit you for a big gain. Or on the reverse side the Defense will hit you for a loss and the next thing you know its 3rd and 15 and your in a bad situation. So you got to be smart to play football and you got to be tough. You got to hit harder then they hit. so what does this mean?
Well lets relate this to us. We are the defense the adversary, (the devil,) is the offense. He can not "gain yards" on us unless we let him. This means what? We got to number one be smart and the second thing is we got to be tough. We got to be smart by not getting "caught out of position." we do this by not letting ourselves be put in positions where we can choose wrong. If we put our self in a position where we can do wrong its like being caught out of position on the Football field. which means the next thing you know the ball is on the other side of the field then you and you are way out of position and you get hit for a big gain. Its like saying this in our lives. "I can go hang out with those people, I just wont do what they are doing." Over time (like football) you get worn out and then boom there is the big play you where scared of. You end up doing things that there doing. I have seen multiple examples of this (including myself.) I have been caught on the wrong side of the field many times. Do not let this happen to you.
So now you have been hit for a big play. you have caught yourself falling into temptation. Now comes the being tough part. They have one yard to go before they score. You know that they are going to run the ball up the middle. This is where you got to be tough, you got to hit instead of them hitting you. This is really what shows who is tougher. You know where the ball is going but can you stop them? This is like sin in our lives. we know we are doing whats wrong but can we stop? Are we going to put forth the effort to stop doing whats wrong and began to do whats right? This is where we got to be tough.
Its a good thing that we got help from the best middle linebacker in the game (no im not talking about Ray Lewis.) We have Jesus Christ to issue the blow. He is more then willing to come in the game. we just got to let him.
I testify that Jesus is the Christ. He suffered and died for us so we can return to live with God. He knows what we are going through we just got to let him in our lives. He has stuck out his hand to help us up off the "field," to brush us off, then join us in the fight. I testify that he has restored his true church back to the earth. I testify that the Book of Mormon is true and that it came forth the way Joseph Smith said it came forth. I testify that the head of The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints is Jesus Christ. This is the only church that holds the power of god on this our earth. I know that to be true. You can to.
To find out more about the Gospel and Sports Click Here
To find out more about the Book of Mormon click Here
Any ideas or inspirational stories for this Blog? Have Questions about the Mormon church? Send me a message on Facebook! www.facebook.com/max.elmer (also there is a link to my facebook in the top left corner of the blog.) or send me an email at max.elmer@myldsmail.net
The Gospel, According to a Sports Guy: Part 4
The need for a Quarterback. Very needful in the game of football. He is the one who takes the plays the coach gives him and puts them into action. Without a Quarterback your offencive attack is hurting. A good Quarterback is one who takes the plays then gets them done. He stands tall in the pocket then throws it to whos open. A Quarterback is one who leads the team onto victory! However they are many other key people on the field and they have to do their job also. If a wide receiver doesn't go all out who is the Quarterback going to throw to? So football is a team effort with the quarterback at the lead.
Alright so who is the Quarterback in our life's today? I am going to relate the Quarterback to Prophets. Well who is a prophet? Well some examples of a prophet are Moses, Noah and Abraham in the Old Testament. There are many other examples of prophets throughout scripture. What does a prophet do? well in the book of Amos it says: "Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets." (Amos 3:7). I think the most important part of that is that it says god will do NOTHING save it be threw his servents the prophets. God needs a prophet on earth to tell us what he needs us to know. Just like how a football team will do NOTHING without a Quarterback... we need a prophet. The prophet is the Quarterback on the earth today. He relays gods messages just like a Quarterback relays messages from the coach. He executes Gods "plays" and makes sure that they happen. The prophet will do all that he can and its up to us to be his "wide receivers." A prophet cant do it all. He needs the support from the rest of us.
So we are the wide receivers. What does this mean? As a wide reciver your job is to get open so the Quarterback can throw you the ball. This means effort, you got to go all out and try your best. the Quarterback will throw the ball up to you but are you going to get under it and catch it? or will you just assume its overthrown or not a good pass and just stop runing. Im going to releate this to councel that the prophet gives us. Are we going to follow it and catch the ball or think its to tough or not important and not even try. Just like how a good receiver try's to catch everything we got to obey the prophets council.
We need a prophet on the earth today just like how you need a Quarterback on the field in a football game. lucky for us we got a prophet! His name is Thomas S. Monson. Why would god not provide us with a prophet when he used to? It would be like just deciding you dont need a Quarterback. It doesn't work like that. we need a prophet and we have a prophet that holds the power of god! we have evidence of this all go to my blog Why do mormons have the Book of Mormon? to find out about this. Or you can contact and ask me about it!
We have a prophet on the earth today. I know we do.
Any ideas or inspirational stories for this Blog? Have Questions about the Mormon church? Send me a message on Facebook! www.facebook.com/max.elmer (also there is a link to my facebook in the top left corner of the blog.) or send me an email at max.elmer@myldsmail.net
The Gospel, According to a Sports Guy: Part 5
The crowd is buzzing, there all yelling at the top of their lungs going crazy! Only problem... it isn't for you. They are all screaming and yelling to try to make you mess up. You are not playing at home. You are on the road. The sign of a good team and a good player is when they are able to win on the road. It is one of the most difficult things to do. It shows that you are able to stay focused under pressure even with all these distractions around you. When you master being able to win on the road you are a pretty good team. How you win on the road is with preparation determination and ultimately staying focused. You got to do your job and win. No other option.
I am going to relate this to us in this life. We are on the field and the rest of the world is the crowd. There all buzzing cheering and yelling to try to get you to do wrong. They yell and cheer when you mess up and are completely silent when you succeed. We need to block the crowd out. We need to listen to our "coaches" and focus on the task at hand so we can continue on to victory! We stay focused by relying on our preparation. You see there is way more that goes into sports then what people think. In football for example there are countless hours of film watching, preparing plays, and practice just for one game. Its a 24/7 job. Our preparation is as simple as daily prayer and scripture study. When you do these things you are much more prepared for the world we live in and you do not focus on the "crowd" but on the task at hand. Which is to gain eternal life. We truly are playing on the road. Will we crumble under pressure? or come out on top? Its up to us. So lets better prepare and have better focus. That is what I am trying to get across to you.
Any ideas or inspirational stories for this Blog? Have Questions about the Mormon church? Send me a message on Facebook! www.facebook.com/max.elmer (also there is a link to my facebook in the top left corner of the blog.) or send me an email at max.elmer@myldsmail.net
The Gospel, According to a Sports Guy: Part 6
You know highlight videos right? The ones that give us sports guys the cool stuff on what happed in the game when we cant watch the whole game! Well here is a highlight video. It is of general conference. So if you were not able to watch it here are the highlights! Take a look and see!
Any ideas or inspirational stories for this Blog? Have Questions about the Mormon church? Send me a message on Facebook! www.facebook.com/max.elmer (also there is a link to my facebook in the top left corner of the blog.) or send me an email at max.elmer@myldsmail.net
The Gospel, According to a Sports Guy: Part 7
This video is about a former football player named Rob Morris. Now Since I have a love for sports I have known about this guy for awhile. He was a first round draft pick by the Indianapolis Colts in the year 2000 (I dont like the Colts but we wont hold that against him!). His best overall year was probably in 2001 when he recorded 114 tackles. He won the Superbowl with the Colts in 2006 where he started at middle linebacker for them. After the 2007 season he decided to retire. He Suffered a knee injury during the season which took a part in his decision to call it Quits. As you can see from the video his family took part in the decision as well.
What I really like about this is how he was able to balance Football and his family. He knows that family is the most important thing. He knows that its all about gods plan. Rob and his wife had the biggest trial of their life during the year the Colts won the Superbowl when their children died during pregnancy. That would be hard, so hard. I couldn't even imagine how hard that would be. I do know this though. With the Gospel Of Jesus Christ it can make these kinds of trials less painful. They Know that they can be with their children again and I am sure that brings a peace to their life that is unimaginable to most. With the Gospel of Jesus Christ We can be with loved ones Again.
To learn more about Rob Morris Click Here
To learn more about Forever Families Click Here
Any ideas or inspirational stories for this Blog? Have Questions about the Mormon church? Send me a message on Facebook! www.facebook.com/max.elmer (also there is a link to my facebook in the top left corner of the blog.) or send me an email at max.elmer@myldsmail.net
