10 Promises of a Great Sports Parent

By Craig L. Morris

You love your child and want to set them up for success both inside and outside of the sports arena. The promises you’re making and living out can be either a beautiful blessing or crippling curse in the life of your athlete. 10 Promises of a Sports Parent will encourage you with wisdom, insightful questions, and practical tools so that you can be the best parent you can be on the sidelines. Wouldn’t it be nice to equip your child for a great life, both inside and outside of the arena?

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Dec 17, 2018
• ISBN: 9781973646334

Craig L. Morris

Craig L. Morris is an author, speaker, and relational coach. He has worked with athletes of various sports and their parents for almost 30 years! Through his research, parent interviews, relational coaching, and sports parenting discussion groups he has gleaned a wealth of wisdom. This expertise, combined with his own personal experience as the parent of two athletes, allows him to identify the challenges and offer helpful solutions for parents of athletes. The equipping, encouragement, and inspiration Craig provides will enable you to simultaneously become the best parent you can be while discovering life at its best.

Book preview

10 Promises of a

Great Sports Parent

CRAIG L. MORRIS

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Copyright © 2019 Craig L. Morris.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com. The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

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ISBN: 978-1-9736-4632-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-9736-4633-4 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018913812

WestBow Press rev. date:   12/13/2018

Contents

I promise to ...

1.   I promise to remember that you are a child.

2.   I promise to look for the good in you and your performance.

3.   I promise to be the person I want you to be.

4.   I promise to always be here for you.

5.   I promise to be patient with you

6.   I promise to prepare you for the road (not the road for you).

7.   I promise to have a better definition of Win

8.   I promise to do my part regardless of your performance.

9.   I promise to always love you. (Love isn’t conditional)

10.   I promise to Enjoy the journey.

Appendix: The 1¹th Promise

Introduction

I can tell you are a good dad. Startled, not even knowing who the speaker was or who they were addressing, I turned around to see a man looking right at me. Our family was at a sandwich place and this stranger looked deeply into my eyes as if he wanted to communicate a message of vital importance. I can tell by the way your daughter laughs with you that you are a great dad. These words of encouragement almost brought tears to my eyes. It is amazing how words from a stranger can penetrate into one’s soul.

I sat with that feel good statement for a few moments, and then, reality crashed in on me when I thought, What would he have concluded if he would have watched me on the sidelines of my child’s game this past weekend?

Tension filled my soul in this powerful moment. The collision of euphoric joy and crippling shame fueled a desire in me to move towards becoming an even better parent. For me, the battlefield is the Arena (this is the name I’ve given for the field, course, pool, court, gym, etc. – wherever your child competes). It is here where my dreams and demons collide in a toxic cocktail of emotions, thoughts, and far too often, behavior that misses the mark.

We all want to be