Hard Work or Natural Talent

The other night as I sat and watched my oldest son at basketball practice, I was taken aback by a total sense of pride. Not that this is a totally new feeling for me. He's 7 years old and been making my proud for just that long. He's really an amazing kid, whose intelligence actually leads me to have to watch myself when talking about him as to not come off to bragadious. (Man I've wanted to use that word for a long time.) You see Timmy's brain is a tad different from some. It's pretty much stuck in 5th gear...all the time. While that's led to some serious amounts of stress since about his third birthday, I also beli

eve its where some of his greatest gifts lie. He's very smart and has been letting us know that since before his first birthday when he knew all his shapes and colors. And when he was holding conversations with us before he was a year and a half. He's also a pretty good artist. He's been making recognizable shapes for as long as I can remember while some kids his age are still struggling to do this. But those things, those things he was born with. Those are his God given gifts. The fact that he loves to read and is reading at a third grade level (while in first grade) of course makes me proud.

But this pride I felt at basketball, was a little new. You see about a year ago I realized he was drawn to basketball. So we began talking about getting him on a team. As soon as the time rolled around we signed him up at the park district. When their first week rolled around they did lots of exercise and lots of drills. It was clear that while maybe not the least talented/coordinated of the boys there (a group of about 50 first through 4th graders) he was also no where near the top. But I was very relieved to hear him say how much fun he had after his 2 hour work out. He's now had three games, which his team has won all of. But not really at thanks to his efforts. He usually hangs back, sometimes is confused and al

most always panicks when he gets the ball and immediately throws it...to no one in particular. But last night, even after he pulled something in the first few minutes of shooting around and wasn't really able to run his laps, when they played some scrimmage that boy left his heart and soul on that court. They played 2 on 5 and he was on the team of two. His teammate was the teams strongest player so that helped some but he was right in there, running his butt off and even stealing the ball. Is he the next Michael Jordan? NO. Clearly he is not but I was amazed by how much he's improved over the last several weeks and how hard he tried. When he walked off the court, all sweaty and out of breath, the first thing he said was "man, that was fun."

Makes a mama proud!