Learning from those life lessons...

A while back, sometime last year, I wrote about watching one of my children going through a rough time. I hoped with all my heart that "some of life's greatest lessons are learned the hard way". That is what I kept telling myself during this trying time. Well, this child did learn some great lessons.

Last year, I watched him sit the bench during basketball season (sometimes with tears in his eyes and ALWAYS with tears in mine), then he tried out for the baseball team. He made the team, but one of his best friends ended up taking his "usual" position. He was put in several different positions during the season and I think he felt a little frustrated. However, he never said a word to either me or Greg.

As the season went on and into summer ball, I watched him work extra hard in the batting cage and frequently asking Greg to work with him in fielding the ball.

This year he made the team again, but ended up starting in right field on the Varsity team as a Sophomore. He has continued to work hard and ended up getting moved to First Base. He is consistently hitting balls after games in the batting cage with Greg and just this last Varsity game against Spanish Fork (Porter pitching), Springville had only 4 hits of the game and 2 of them were Payton's. One being a double.

I am so proud of him and his ability to learn from a trial and come out better for it. I know that this not only helps him on the field, but in his personal life also.

Jantsen is another great example to me of someone who takes a negative situation and turns it into a positive. His baseball team of several years broke up this year. So Greg started one with kids Jantsen's age (he played with a team a year older) and some of them never having played baseball before. Jantsen was very sad to leave the first team. He had had such a great experience and good friends on that team, but he continued to be positive about this new team.

After their first practice game, I thought, "This is going to be a LONG season".

So far, this team has won 2 out of 4 games. That is awesome! And Jantsen has been amazing! He plays with such fire and determination! I have never seen him play so well. The other teammates see this and have caught on. He is a great leader for them and he loves it. Most all of them are his good friends. It is inspiring to watch.

(Several of these boys are on his basketball team and they are amazing! Great boys who know how to compete.) This will be a fun season no matter what happens!