WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO WHEN LIFE IS NOT FAIR?

Sitting on hard metal bleachers on a beautiful summer morning several weeks ago, I had the opportunity to ask my ten-year-old son this question. 

Baseball is serious business at our house and we were watching an exciting playoff game between two local teams. Although my son was not playing (he had recently moved up a level,) many of his close friends were involved and our dear friend, Tony, was head coach. The game started out great, but within a few innings the home plate umpire began to make one bad call after another against our team.

Tony, a normally reserved man who seldom questions an official, stepped out to the plate after a disastrous call to discuss the strike zone with the umpire. To his credit, he did so calmly and without theatrics, setting a wonderful example for players and fans alike. Still, the calls continued. At one point, one of the young players became so distressed that he ran out of the dugout close to tears.

"Mom," he cried, "it's not fair!"

As his mother sent him back into the dugout with the instruction to, "Just do your best," I turned to my son and asked him what he was going to do when life wasn't fair.

"What do you mean, Mom?"

"Well, Bobby, life isn't always fair. Sometimes you get a bad call in a game and sometimes you get a bad call in life. Do you know what I mean?"

"I think so, Mom."

We spent the next fifteen minutes or so discussing the fact that life often is not fair, that sometimes you catch a bad call or things just don't go your way, but what really matters is how we respond to life's bad calls. Do we respond with grace and dignity the way Tony and the other player's mom did? Do we, "Just do our best?" Or do we whine, complain and give up?

Teaching moments like this one allow me to communicate my beliefs to my children and offer them the opportunity to understand important life lessons. And this may be one of the most important lessons of all: Though we don't always control the circumstances of our lives, we ALWAYS have control over how we respond to those circumstances.

Carry yourself with grace and dignity and just do your best. Not bad advice for ball players and pretty good advice for the rest of us, too!