Basketball and Eternal Life

Growing up in my family, we loved to play sports, as a family and competitively. Throughout my childhood I participated in many sports. My two favorite sports today would be running, and basketball. My Mom is a Track fanatic and my Dad has always love basketball. He even budgeted and saved so he could put a basketball half court in his house. So obviously that is a sport we do a lot as a family.

I think basketball is a very interesting sport. In order to be a good shooter in basketball, we have to focus on the hoop. It is very difficult to make a shot if we are not focused on the hoop. What has always baffled me is the power of our mind. It calculates the exact amount of strength we need to put into the shot. It also calculates how the ball should come off of our fingers so it heads towards the rim at the right angle. It is a marvelous tool that we absolutely must use in basketball.

It is also much easier to make shots when no one is around, but when someone is trying to guard you, it is a different story. So in order to get a good quality shot, we have to use our teammates and create plays that help us get open and get a quality clear shot.

You are probably wondering what this has to do with eternal life? That is a great question. The hoop represents keeping God's commandments. And we need to focus all of our attention on the hoop in order to make the shot, otherwise it gets mighty difficult to make and easy to miss and break the commandments. Our mind represents the words of the prophet's. They are men called of God and lead by God to guide us and direct us on the paths we should go. We must utilize this tool.

Now, like I said, it is easy to make a shot when no one is guarding you. But when we are in a game, the defender is constantly trying to stop you from making it in the basket. The defender represents Satan. Satan is trying to do everything he can to distract your view from the commandments of God. He is trying to blind you, or do whatever it takes so you don't make the shot.

So how do we steer away from Satan and focus on the commandments? The answer is our team! Who is our team? Our team is Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, the Holy Ghost, our family, and our friends. In Doctrine and Covenants 10:5 it says "Pray always, that you may come off conquer; yea, that you may conquer Satan, and that you may escape the hands of the servants of Satan that do uphold his work." We have to get their help. We have to pray so that we can come off conquer. A lot of times in basketball we will see that there is one player who tries to do everything himself. It often doesn't work and the team loses. We need to ask our teammates to set screens for us and block out the Devil so we can get an open shot at the hoop.

When we do everything we can to keep the commandments of God, God will provide that which you cannot do. But we must do everything we can first. God loves us and he wants us to succeed. He has given us prophet's to guide us. We need to follow the counsel of his prophet's. We have a wonderful opportunity to listen to the prophet's on March 31st from 12-2pm and 4-6pm EST, and April1st from 12-2pm and 4-6pm EST. You can watch it on BYUTV or you can go to lds.org. You can even go to your local Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. To find your local congregation go to http://mormon.org/worship/. It will be a spiritual revelatory experience. They will guide us and tell us how we can stay clear from the path of Satan so the we can give ourselves the best opportunity to get open and make the shot, keep the commandments of God.