Faith Venture

Few arenas of life reveal as much as youth sports does about—parents. I remember my own good times and, with much chagrin, my bad ones. Thirty-five years working as a referee in youth and high school soccer revealed the growing trend of “helicopter” parents who hovered over their kids to protect them and “snow plow” parents who tried to pave the way for them.

I have written a blog on technology, leadership, and industrial applications for just over 20 years. Many, many PR agencies have me on their radar. Sometimes I get strange releases. Here is one I just received where a data company did an analysis of TikTok and Google search data.

Job Shift Shock is the most popular work trend with a total 1.7B TikTok views and nearly 121K monthly searches on Google. The trend leads the list as it describes the transition from initial excitement of beginning a new job to the disappointment of unexpected responsibilities.

I can think of few clearer signals about what happens to young people when they have always had someone there to smooth the way for them. I remember hiring a young man recently graduated from university. He wondered how long (a year or two?) before he would be in line to be president of the company.

The book of Proverbs contains some excellent advice for raising kids—as long as you are not a literalist reader. You must provide guidelines, guardrails, and discipline. And also appropriate and increasing measures of freedom to go play and learn to get along with other humans. 

American professional football just held its annual championship game. The two teams competed well. The coaches prepared the teams with skill and ingenuity. The players individually played with passion and athleticism. It was thrilling with one team winning on the last play.

I scanned my few news sources the next morning only to see some reporter propose that the losing coach blew one or more decisions at the end leading to the loss.

This is a person who never did the hundreds of things that bring a team together that eventually plays for the championship. But the headline received many clicks, and he got paid.

How often do we sit on the sidelines second-guessing the people actually making the decisions and doing the work? The pastor screwed up again. Or the committee or organization leader fails to lead—to our satisfaction. But how often do we stand up and take the chance to lead? This second guessing leads to dissension and division.

Worse  still is when we second guess ourselves. “If only” thinking can ruin our lives. We can live in despair for years with that thinking. Of course we need to learn from experience. How often we say “I’ll not do that again!” Beware living the “if only I…” life. It leads nowhere.