Marriage & Family Life: Road to sainthood is paved with challenges

by Adam Storey | September 18, 2019

My wife and I are always excited when football season begins.

I think there are few things better than enjoying an afternoon relaxing, eating snack food, and watching an exciting game.

I’m always amazed by the talent and skill that both college and professional teams exhibit. We enjoy the results of their hard work, but what we don’t see are the long hours in the weight room, watching film, and the countless drills mastering the fundamentals.

Football season reminds me that excellence is achieved through dedicated work, through practice and even through learning from mistakes. This is true of football, and I also think it’s true of family life.

I want to be a great husband and a great dad. I want to be patient, and generous, and sacrificial. I want greatness, and football season reminds me that if I want greatness, I have to want the work, too.

Patience doesn’t just happen, it’s a learned habit, something that takes time and effort to grow into. Often times, I want the virtue but I don’t want to take the time to learn it!

Becoming great doesn’t happen overnight and it doesn’t come without frequent mistakes. As disciples we know that growing as a family requires grace, it’s less about what I do and more about receiving what God wants to do within me.

The good news is that this is an invitation open to all of us.

I’ll probably never be a cornerback in the NFL (although let’s not totally rule it out), but I am invited to holiness, I am invited to be a saint. And so are you!

But it doesn’t come without work, it doesn’t come without difficulties and detours, and most important it doesn’t come without receiving God’s gratuitous grace. I hope this fall we can all be inspired to desire greatness a little bit more, and to say yes again to the hard work this entails!