brittany nicole

My mom wanted a boy, but God gave her me instead. She grew up as a tomboy and wasted no time signing me up for sports. I started playing tee-ball around age 4/5 and that is where my love for softball began. I continued to play as a young girl which led to middle school and that led to high school.  Unfortunately I stopped playing junior year due to seizures. The summer before my junior/sophomore year, I played for a summer league team.

I wanted to share a valuable lesson that I learned through the game of softball years ago that God reminded me of this past week.

So in this particular game that I’m referring to, I had hit 3 homeruns already. Each time I would run to my momma afterwards and say, “Did you just see that?” Homeruns were not the norm for me, but my head was getting bigger & bigger as each inning passed. We’re now in the last inning and my team is up to bat. According to my calculations, I wouldn’t have a chance to make it back to the plate. So I was cheering each batter along because I wanted to finish this game off with a win. Well let’s fast forward, the other team has 2 outs, and we have 1 on base. Keep in mind that there’s 2 batters ahead of me, but my cocky self wanted to be the star of the game. Both batters got to take the base (The pitcher hit one with the ball and walked the other.)

The moment I had been waiting for was for one more chance to show my momma just how good I was and to be the star of the game. Bases are loaded and your homerun hitter is up to bat… Perfect scenario? Right?

I…

STRUCK…

OUT…

We lost the game with bases loaded and the homerun hitter up to bat.

I cried because I was so upset with myself and my momma said these exact words…

“Brittany, I told you to settle down after each homerun, but you lost sight of the ball when it counted most because your focus was on you. You placed yourself over the team. There is no “I” in team.”

I cried some more…

Reason being is because what she said was true, and I had falsely convinced myself otherwise.

How many times have we lost sight of where God is taking us because our focus was tangled up in our own abilities?

Every opportunity that God blesses you with is like him saying, “Batter Up”

If you don’t step up to the plate with humility though, God will have to step in and humble you with a strike-out.

Strike-outs are necessary sometimes, and they’re not meant to kill you. God is using the strike-out to ‘Strike Out’ pride, selfishness, ego, hate, cockiness, etc.

A home run requires for you to make direct contact with the ball, but if you’re too busy wrapped up in your own strength, a strike out is in your future.

Make direct contact with God and he’ll see you through, His grace is sufficient. We all strike out from time to time, but only God has {the power, the strength, and the ability} to make a strike out work in your favor.

You may be up to bat, but you can’t control what’s being thrown your way. Trust God for every base hit in life, strike-out on the job, and homerun down victory lane.

#BNspired2day ❤️😘

B.Nicole