The Personal Weblog of Travis Kaiser

I’m on vacation along with doing a little reading and writing. Check back on Monday the 14th for a new posting that I’m already working on!

Over the weekend I read a great article from The Courier Journal Newspaper. It was an interview with Steve Small who was the women’s basketball coach at Western Kentucky University from 1984-2001. Below you will find his 10 Commandments for Parents and Rules for Athletes.

10 Commandments for Parents:

1. Make sure your child knows that win or lose, scored or heroic, you love them and appreciate your efforts.
2. Try to be completely honest about your child’s athletic abilities.
3. Be helpful. Don’t coach on the way to the game or on the way home!!!
4. Teach them to enjoy the thrill of competition. Don’t say “Winning doesn’t count,” because it does.
5. Don’t relive your athletic life through your child in a way that creates pressure (I’ve seen parents do this in many areas of thier child’s life.)
6. Don’t compete with the coach. Period.
7. Don’t compare your child’s skill, courage or attitude with that of other players.
8. Get to know the coach, his or her philosophy, attitudes and knowledge.
9. Remember, children tend to exaggerate, either when praised or criticized. Temper your reaction when they bring home tales of woe or heroics.
10. Make a point of understanding courage and the fact that it is relative. Courage is no the absence of fear but rather doing something in spite of fear.

Rules for athletes:

DON”T:

…..try to understand everything. Some things will just never make sense.

…..ever be reluctant to show your feelings. When you’re happy, give in to it! When you’re not, live with it.

…..be afraid to try to make things better. You may be surprised at the results.

…..take the weight of the world on your shoulders.

…..feel threatened by the future. Take life one day at a time.

…..feel guilty abou the past - what’s done is done. Learn from the mistakes you might have made.

…..feel that you are alone. There is always someone there for you to reach out to.

One final note that Coach Small adds is, “Whether you are the starter or the one sitting on the bench, the umpire, the mom, the dad, the grandpa, the grandma, the scorekeeper, the concession worker, where you are - be all there! Be the first one to practice, the last one to leave, make sure you look your coach in the eye, say yes sir, no ma’am. And remember this: A.S.A.P. - Always Say A Prayer.

I’ve talked with a lot of students and adults who desire to help others during this holiday season. I led some people to families within our church who are in need. However, after Happy Birthday Jesus, our children’s ministry provided for the majority of the families we knew about. Way to go guys!

 There are still plenty of people left in need. For some reason the Lord has been stirring my heart toward others’ needs for the past several weeks. It’s more than just the “Christmas is here so you should think of others Travis” feeling. I’m learning more and doing more. Giving can come through money, talents, time, energy, skills, and other resources.

In my conversations with some of you, you said that you wanted to know more about how you can help. Below are some great links to get you started (you can get to any of the websites by clicking on the highlighted words):

Food for the Hungry - This is a great place to start. You can join us in sponsoring a child from the Cochabamba region of Bolivia or you can check out their Christmas catalogue where you can purchase Bibles, food, animals, provide tools for a family business, or education.

Harvest of Hope has a similar Christmas catalogue. If you don’t have that special Christmas gift yet, you can always purchase some goats to help a family create income for themselves. Isn’t that right Gordon?

Vanderbilt’s Children Hospital has a list of toy and supply donations to help families in the Nashville downtown area.

Finally, check out www.kiva.org. I found out about this website from Bill Clinton pushing his “Giving” book (this is on my Christmas list). I don’t care much for all of his politics but he is on to something in this book. At Kiva.org you can help sponsor people to launch their entreprenurial dreams. Kiva gives the people a timeline in which they have to pay the loan back which will then give you “Kiva Credit” to help launch another dream in the world. To date Kiva has loaned over $10 million and 97% of the loans have been paid back in full.

Have you ever seen something that tricked your eyes? An illusion perhaps? I like illusions and enjoy them unless there is more than meets the eye.

 Such is the case with The Golden Compass. The artsy, childish, adventurous movie is much more than meets the eye. Director Chris Weitz draws the movie from Phillip Pullman’s trilogy “His Dark Materials”. What’s the point behind the books and movie? Pullman quotes “I’m trying to undermine the basis of Christian belief”(Gorski, att.net). I’ve read a couple of articles where Pullman said he “wants to kill God”, a basic teaching of Neitzsche. Other critics have called it “atheism for children”.

 So will you be taking your children to see it on Friday? You decide but I at least want you to make an informed decision.

 Here are links to a few articles. I encourage you to keep digging about the truth of this movie.

1. Movie Ministry Webpage - if it the article doesn’t come up then search for Golden Compass in the search box.

2. Associated Press

3. Focus on the Family - This link will take you to Focus’ webpage search for “Golden Compass”

4. Albert Mohler - Here is a great link to a great thinker’s blog. His post on the movie is very well written!