Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, Philippians 2:3 (NIV)

I’m sitting here watching my son, Andrew practice soccer. I have to hand it to coach Bob, he’s a great guy with a big heart and coaching fourteen 6^th graders is a lot like herding cats. At times teaching 6^th grade boys anything at all can be a real challenge. It seems that most of Bob’s effort is spent trying to get the boys to work together, pass the ball around and work as a team. If you know anything about boys at this age playing like a team goes against everything in their constitution.

I’m reminded that everything in our being works against playing like a team too. Whether we’re talking about soccer or life in general we also tend to, so-to-speak, hog the ball. It’s in our nature to make a play ourselves rather than to pass the ball to another player and share the glory and the effort.

So when we are on the job and the boss recognizes some accomplishment, do we share the credit with others who were involved or do we simply let the boss think we did it all ourselves? When we’re working on a project with our coworkers do we look for ways to include others or do we hog the spotlight for ourselves?

The truth is this team could go a lot farther if these boys would work as a team and play to one another’s strengths. If they could just learn that it doesn’t all depend on any one of them but on the group as a whole they would have an unbeatable team. Really that’s the same challenge we face in life as adults all the time.

Consider today the importance of valuing others above yourself and look for ways to pass the ball and share the glory.

Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. Romans 12:10 (NIV)