Week 3 - How Do We Change?

MONDAY — Read the passage with your team.

     33 Teach me, O LORD, to follow your decrees; then I will keep them to the end.  34 Give me understanding, and I will keep your law and obey it with all my heart.  35 Direct me in the path of your commands, for there I find delight.  36 Turn my heart toward your statutes and not toward selfish gain.  37 Turn my eyes away from worthless things; preserve my life according to your word.     38 Fulfill your promise to your servant, so that you may be feared.  39 Take away the disgrace I dread, for your laws are good.  40 How I long for your precepts!  Preserve my life in your righteousness.

Psalm 119:33-40

What does this passage have to say about a teachable spirit?

Why is that important?

TUESDAY — Discuss the passage with your team.

1) Often it seems impossible to be the kind of person we see this passage telling us to be.  Even when we want to do so, we often still find it hard to change.  What does this passage tell us about how changes really happen?  (Hint: Each verse begins with a verb.  Who does the writer ask to “do” these things?)

2) Sometimes the harder we try to make good habits, the more we feel like a failure.  As you try to make changes in your life, who are you depending on?

WEDNESDAY — Discuss the passage with your team.

3) This passage is a prayer, and one that only God can answer.  God deals with our hearts and will be faithful to answer a prayer of a teachable heart.  What things does the writer of this psalm ask God to do?  What are you praying for?

4) As you try to improve as an athlete, who are you depending on?  Do you really want to improve, and do your actions demonstrate a commitment to improving?  Are you asking for help?  Do you find delight in being taught?  Are you willing to be corrected?

THURSDAY — Discuss the passage with your team.

5) One of the ways in which a teachable spirit displays itself is in conversation with God, as demonstrated in this psalm.  When your team prays together, do you fully participate — in your heart, if not in words?  Do you view your team prayer time as important?

6) Is it important to pray about your participation in athletics?  Does God care about this area of your life?  Are you praying for your teammates in the midst of your season?  Who do you know that you could ask to pray for you?

FRIDAY — Discuss sport applications of teachability, and pray together.

· Ask your athletes to briefly reflect on what they’ve learned about a teachable spirit this week, and to repeat some of those things.  (Remind them of some of the Biblical truths about teachability you’ve discussed, if necessary.)

· Ask your team, “Based on what we learned about a teachable spirit this week...What does a teachable athlete do?”  Do not settle for vague answers; challenge your athletes to go beyond general qualities of a teachable athlete, and to determine what those qualities look like in action.

· Add the results to your team’s list of descriptions of the “teachable athlete”, and be sure the list is displayed somewhere that is constantly visible, as a reminder to the team.

· Pray together as a team.  Encourage your athletes to pray for your team’s growth in regard to the discipline of a teachable spirit — especially in relation to some of the issues and challenges that you discussed together this week.  Challenge them to also ask for forgiveness, when applicable.  Give time for athletes to request prayer (regarding teachability or anything else), and pray together.