Freshwater: Competitive Spirit

Freshwater

Located in the wilds of Wyoming, the name Freshwater was chosen as a Western analogy to Christ. Just as He is the Living Water, and we must have Him to have eternal life, any desert dweller knows the importance of fresh water to life, both for self, and the nourishment of crops or livestock. By taking nourishment in God and His word, we strengthen our own relationship with Him, our faith, and the quality and abundance of our fruitfulness.

Our keystone verse is from Jeremiah, Chapter 17, Verse 8: "For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see whenSave heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit."

The fruit that we speak of is mentioned in Galatians 5:22
"²²But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, ²³Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law."

And the heat could be anything we experience that might test our faith in God; trials and tribulations, relationships, anything that focuses our love and attention anywhere but on Him...

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Competitive Spirit

Do you have one? I am sorry to say that not only do I have one, it sometimes gets the better of me. Now I don't see anything wrong with wanting to win (or at least make a good showing), and I don't see anything wrong with a little healthy, all in good fun, sportsmanship filled competition, but there's just something about making it a contest that sends my competitive gene into hyper drive. And since I am such a clutzy, sales challenged, unathletic dweeb, the contests where I can shine get revved up to a fever pitch, and sometimes, I just can't let go!

Let me share an example. I love CafeMom. Some days I think I live there ;). Most months, one of my groups has a contest. The two Mods (Moderators) who make the most posts in the group win a prize. I love winning, and I could certainly use the prize money, but I almost think I need to disqualify myself for at least a month, because I think I'm out of control! During the month of September, I went on vacation with my family. I knew there was no way I could win that month. In fact, I was sure I wouldn't even make my Mod goals, and shared that with the Group Administrators and my fellow Mods.

I was at least going to post some photos while on vacation, but I wasn't able to because of a slow internet connection at the hotel. Upon our return from vacation 3 weeks later, where I returned to the group, almost 200 posts behind the leader, and well toward the bottom of the pack. Fast forward two weeks to the end of the month when the posts and replies were tallied...and I had 864 entries, over 200 more than the next highest participant. Do you know how much time I must have spent online in order to generate that? I love CafeMom and I love posting, and I love participating, but I think I need to just post to post, and not be in the competition, because sometimes I feel like I am not giving anyone else a chance, but I just can't stop myself!