I think back to when I was in 7th grade playing AAU basketball. I was on a team named "the running rebels". We were having a great season, we had only lost 2 out of about 55 games, and won every tournament we played in up to that point. We worked very hard to get to where we were at. Then came time for the state tournament, the only tournament that really mattered. We were favored to win it and didn't look like we would have much of a challenge. We breezed through all the games up until the championship game and were set to play a team we beat earlier in the year, but this game proved to be a big challenge. We came out stagnant and weren't playing up to our ability. We were behind most of the game, and with just 2 seconds left in the game we were down by 2 points with the other team shooting free-throws. It would have been easy to throw in the towel at that point. The opposing player missed his free-throw however and my teammate rebounded the ball and passed it up to our shooting guard about 3/4 of the court away from the basket. He launched a hail mary shot, and the ball banked off the backboard and into the hoop. We won the tournament and finished our season victorious.
Each of us are at a different stage in life, some are on course and others are far from it. In the game of basketball the final minutes and even seconds are what determine the outcome of the game. In our lives it is the same thing, we could have worked hard our whole life to keep the commandments and in the end if we neglect our faith, we can lose all that we have gained up until this point. At the same time we could have made alot of bad decisions in our life, but if we regroup and do our best at the end, we can come off victors.
Enduring to the end is such an important step of the Gospel, it is where we prove our faith and sincerity of our repentance and determination to follow our Savior Jesus Christ.
Great story! I love sports stories compared to life
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