Who are our heroes?

I've always enjoyed sport- been reasonably good at it, too. I would be loathe to rate it as an obsession but I am Australian, after all. It's been said that 'few countries use sport to measure national achievement quite like Australians'. We are passionate about winning gold!

Sport is everywhere, whether it's couples out jogging, cheering parents on the sidelines of soccer games, early morning cyclists chewing up the miles, men and women packing a gym session into their lunch break or solitary surfers astride their boards at dawn. Yes, sport is everything and everywhere.

So it goes without saying that our sporting heroes, those whose achievements on the sports field have been crowned with success, feature prominently in news reports, magazines and media.

It's been disquieting to notice that, increasingly, the news reports feature these 'heroes' off-field where their attitudes, character and morals decidedly 'miss the mark'. Are these the types of men and women we want our youth to emulate?

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For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with with brotherly affection and brotherly affection with love.        2 Peter 1:5-7

I was feeling discouraged and disappointed watching such reports as our church presented our recent special family events - the father/son wild game dinner and the mother/daughter high tea. But, slipped between the full-colour, big headline articles, I read of professional golfer, Hunter Mahan. Mahan was leading in the Canadian Open, which pays its winner more than $1 million, when he received word that his wife had gone into labour 3 weeks early. He had a choice- money and fame or family. His decision?

Mahan put the lure of fame and glory behind, pulled out of the competition and flew to Dallas for the birth of his baby. He commented later, "When I'm done playing golf, I'd rather be noted for being a good husband and good father than anything else."

These are the sporting highlights that kids and their families need to hear. These are the attitudes and qualities we want displayed by our heroes in every sporting arena. Bring on more reports like this one. Bring on more sporting heroes with prowess both in sport and in determining the things that really matter.

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