Is teaching your children how to lose on your discipleship agenda? Young men and women reading this – Do you know how to honor the Lord when you lose?
It should be on our agenda. One of the best things that can happen to our children is for them to lose some competition.
Shocking? 
Losing and suffering are part of life. Can we (and our children) praise the Lord in the valley as well as the mountain top?
Tim Tebow provided an excellent example Saturday night of honoring the Lord even in the crushing 45-10 defeat.He was asked:
There’s been a lot of talk this year about faith and winning. As Solomon said, ‘Victory belongs to the Lord.’ What about losing? How do you make sense of what’s the end of your season?
Tim responds in a God honoring way:
Well, something I pray before games, during games, and after games is regardless whether I win, whether I lose, whether I’m the hero or the goat — it doesn’t matter — that I still honor the Lord and give Him the glory because He’s deserving of it. And just like my effort shouldn’t change, neither should that. So that’s how I try to approach it. Sometimes even in a loss you can honor Him more. And so, for me I just pray that my character and who I am doesn’t change. Even though you can be dejected, you can still feel hurt, you can be disappointed; but you can still honor the Lord with how you handle things. (my emphasis in bold)
That is a powerful, God-honoring answer. Our children want to win in competitions. . Are we thankful for defeats as a chance to teach them character lessons like this?
May my children and your children honor the Lord in handling victory and handling defeat!
