“Go to the ant, you slacker! Observe its ways and become wise.”
– Proverbs 6:6

There are times when I feel the concept of hard work is a lost art. I jokingly tell people that I could always find a job simply because I’m willing to show up every day. As coaches, we are constantly pushing our athletes to give their best effort. Our athletes often come to us without understanding what it takes to accomplish something difficult. Some are not willing to give the physical and mental effort necessary to get better as an individual or as a team. Motivating today’s athletes is one of the toughest challenges coaches have to face day in and day out.

Scripture talks about the importance of hard work and also gives us a great illustration. Proverbs 6:6 suggests that we spend some time looking at the lowly ant. The ant is fast and strong. An ant has the ability to carry up to fifty times its body weight and to run eight hundred times its own body length in a minute. I believe every coach would like to see those results from his team’s weight room workouts! The ant is not only capable of accomplishing great things individually, but they make great teammates. Ant colonies are so organized they behave as a single unit in regards to survival and growth. Don’t we wish our teams functioned like that? Why is the right attitude about work so important? Longtime Green Bay Packer coach Vince Lombardi said it this way, “The price of success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand, and the determination that whether we win or lose, we have applied the best of ourselves to the task at hand.”

Heavenly Father, help me to not run from hard work today. Push me to give my best and to demand the best from those I influence. Amen.