Cheering Them On

It's football season, and so I thought I would post something from my draft folder. I probably wrote this a couple of years ago, when I was in the big middle of being a football mom. This is NOT a post against cheerleaders. This is a post about understanding where MOMS are coming from, because sometimes we get lost in the shuffle. And sometimes, with our boys (and girls), we are left out of a part of their lives that we so much want to enjoy and share with them! 

This is the first time in AT LEAST 10 years that I don't have a boy playing football. It's hard...sad...weird. We went to our first Friday night game last night. It wasn't to watch our high school team where we live now...the one Clark has played on for the past two years. We went to watch the team from where we used to live.

It was strange...and different. And Jim and I both agreed that it was the least stressed we have been at a Friday night football game in YEARS.

I love cheerleaders. I do. My daughter was a cheerleader for several years when she was younger...my daughter-in-law was a cheerleader all the way through school, and in her first year of college. Cheerleaders...as a group...do so much for the athletes. My boys got treat bags and signs and their cars were painted up. Their lockers were decorated. Our house was decorated. The accomplishments of the team were celebrated. I loved that time. 

Side note: my daughter was a swimmer. She was on the high school swim team from 9-12th grade. The cheer sponsor never brought cheerleaders out to cheer at their swim meets. They never got the treat bags or their lockers decorated, even tho they went to state every.single.year. At our school, it was mainly about the football boys...and not as much about some of the other sports. So that's why this post is mainly my observations as a football mom.

We saw you look at us and roll your 16 year old eyes as we cheered for our team. That cute little uniform you're wearing? Some of us wore it, too.

What WE know: You're taught NOT to "woo." You have special cheers and chants. You've learned band dances. We get that. But those boys we're all cheering for? We are their MOMS. Truth be told, some of us are YOUR moms, too.

What you DON'T know: 19 excruciating hours of labor and loss and sickness and cancer and up all night crying and one of mine nearly being born on the I-630 bridge over the Arkansas River and worrying they're gonna get hurt and never having a day off from being a mom and knowing this is only a game but it's so much more to them.

So, yeah. We're gonna "woo."

We might even "woo-HOOOO!"

We're all here for the same reason...let's all be nice.

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us..." Hebrews 12:1