| Character
Development |
In the past,
people have turned a blind eye to character flaws if a person
was talented enough. That is definitely not the case anymore.
There are numerous cases of athletes, at the pinnacle of
their careers, self destructing because of a lack of character.
We believe character matters.
We have implemented an honor
system in our training process that will challenge our athletes
to make good life decisions and encourage integrity. We will
be challenged twice a month in this section by Reuben
Thropay.
He is a pastor, former UCLA football player and the father
of four young athletes. Zion Athletes, read what he has to
say carefully because your coaches will be checking with
you and your response will be taken into consideration when
up for a Completion Review. (5 levels of completion scholarship
program)
Hi, I'm Reuben Thropay, I'm
one of the Pastors at a local Church in Monrovia. We
meet at the GospelHall, Located at 211 So. Magnolia 1
1/2 blocks south of Foothill. My income is from doing
property management. I've been a clergy member on the
Temple City Police Department for 13 years. I've been
married for 16 years to my amazing wife Carol and have
4 children. Josiah 14, Jonathan 13, Jordan11, and Janessa
10. But most importantly I trusted Christ as my Lord
and Savior at the age of 12 back in 1976. I was born
January 1st 1964 and grew up in East Los Angeles. I was
student body President of my elementary school and senior
class President of my highschool in Montebello. In 1982
my freshman year at UCLA I rowed on theFreshman Crew
team. We were the 1st freshman team in 12 years to win
the San Diego crew classic, and 1st ever to go to the
National championships inSyracuse New York. We came in
fourth behind Dartmouth University. I walkedon the UCLA
football team in 1983 and was forced to quit three years
later because of degeneration in my collar bone in 1986.
Even though I was an outsidelinebacker I only played
special teams and never earned a scholarship. I was on
the team with Karl Dorrell, Rick Neheisel, Ken Nortan
Jr., JamesWashington and others. I graduated in 1987.
During those years I was active with Campus Crusade for
Christ and Navigators. I was involved in Gospel outreach
open air preaching, track distribution, and hosted Bible
studies in my dorm.
Yours by His grace,
Reuben
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In this CHARACTER CHALLENGE we will look at TEMPERANCE or self control, self denial, self restraint, moderation. We live in a world of extremes and self indulgence, with many trying to go beyond God given boundaries in the name of freedom, to find and experience new highs in life, but this has proven to be fatal. We have extreme sports and extreme sweat shirts an expression of the age we are living in. Extremes in any direction are ill advised. TEMPERANCE should be the order of the day. Christian philosophy is a philosophy of self denial, self control, self restraint. Satanic philosophy is a philosophy of “live as you please,” “ have what you want,” “don’t let anyone tell you what to do,” and “it’s your life, you have a right to live it.” This always leads to an untimely death.
TEMPERANCE is a Christian virtue that is naturally produced in men and women of faith, who live a surrendered life in dependence on the Holy Spirit of God. Without Gods help you will have to be a very disciplined individual. Your incentive? To live a long and enjoyable life. To be successful we must closely guard and monitor the three T’s. Our Thoughts, our Temper, and our Tongue. With these three in check we will have few regrets. Proper self control involves the mastery of one’s own body. What we do with our body is controlled by what we are thinking. This is why our mind is the battleground for Satan. He wants to influence our thinking through billboards, music, TV, magazines, movies, the internet, etc. to do his will. Therefore we must be very selective in where we look and stare, and what we listen to. Ask yourself, would my parents approve? does God approve? Is it clean and wholesome? Is it necessary and beneficial.
TEMPERANCE is a person who’s TEMPER is under control. Have you ever lost your temper? This is the result of improper thinking about yourself and others. Emotions do not have a mind of their own. They are produced by what a person is thinking. Have you ever sat at home and watched a scary movie?. Even though you are safe in your own house, and the movie is not real, you can experience fear. Why? because you are thinking scary thoughts. If you think loving thoughts toward another person, you will feel love for them. If you have hateful thoughts, you will feel hatred toward the other person. For proper thoughts about yourself, God and others read the huge love letter God preserved for us; The Bible. (Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth). Thirdly we must Tame our Tongue. The tongue is an unruly evil. It too only reveals what’s in our heart and mind. One of the smallest members of our body, yet very powerful. It can be used for good or evil. The Tongue is like the tiny rudder on a huge ship, that controls its direction, even in a storm. It’s like a small flame that can result in the destruction of an entire forest. I’ve heard it said, “make sure what you say is polite and sweet, you never know what words you’ll have to eat.” Legitimate bodily appetites, if not controlled, easily become sin. Gluttony, Lust, and laziness are all examples of legitimate appetites out of control. All of them destroy character and lead to worse sins. A. C. Green once a player for the Los Angeles Lakers, unmarried and still a virgin, while promoting abstinence among teens (no sex before marriage), said “What our youth need today is SELF CONTROL not BIRTH CONTROL.
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Check out the article on Temperance in this weeks Character Development section." To be successful we must closely guard and monitor the three T’s. Our
Thoughts, our Temper, and our Tongue. With these three in check we will
have few regrets."
Speed and Agility will be run in the mornings starting Dec.1st .
We would like thank everyone who contributed to a great football season.
The football skills and conditioning program is Saturdays at 8 am. Half shells and helmets.You must be scheduled and cleared to attend.
There will be an Introduction to Youth Quarterback class available in December. This class will focus on the skills needed at the younger ages to excel at this position.
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