Winning and Humility

So with three boys in this household that are very close in age and very competitive,We need to already start teaching some humility and lay down some new rules.  I am glad I got a few pointers from Tim Tebow's book "Through My Eyes". He had two older brothers that were all very competitive also.
Cooper got home from his game last night and he was so proud as was his dad. They played a team that outscored them last time 24-0 and there was a girl on that team that was an excellent little ball player and she pretty much drove to the basket and scored all the points for that team. Last night the outcome was a little different. The score was 11-8. So it was quite the moral victory. Cooper came in and said "I almost won the whole game myself." He scored the 8 points. The one game I decide to miss and stay home because Jordan was tired; was one of Cooper's best games. He kept that girl from scoring and had quite a few fouls and blocked shots on her. I was proud listening to him tell me about it and could tell the excitement since this is the first time their team even came close to winning. Dad looked over at Braedyn and could tell he was kind of sad. Here Cooper was bragging about getting 8 points in one game and Braedyn's gotten a couple of shots in all of his games combined. It's not because Braedyn does not shoot but their team has a lot of good players and everyone gets a chance. So after seeing his facial expressions, we needed to lay down some new rules and tell Cooper we were proud of him, but there will be no bragging in this house about how many points are scored in any of the games you play. You are not to talk or brag about your own accomplishments unless someone asks you how you did. If someone asks you how you played you can tell them without volunteering the information.
This can be found in Proverbs 27:2
Let another praise you, and not your own mouth;a stranger, and not your own lips.
In the book "Through My Eyes" Tebow explains how that also helped them realize over time it was nicer to not hear them brag about their own accomplishments and it faded away. Then if someone complimented them on their character to his parents, his parents gave them a dollar, so they became focused on things that matter, Character and Humility, rather than what happens in the game that day. Maybe their onto something....
That was my first experience with that. Another lesson learned from my child's eyes. If we hadn't seen the sadness in Braedyn's eyes we may have not realized we needed to be aware of our reactions to our child doing so great in a game.  They teach me new things everyday whether good or bad but we are all on a path to hopefully better ourselves and those around us if we just take the time to see them each for who they are and what they feel.  I read somewhere, "doing what it takes to be in tune with our children is one of the greatest gifts we can give them, and a gift we give ourselves for if we really know them we'll see the image of God in them as well."
~Allie