Lessons Learned - Debate Tournaments!
My two oldest girls are involved in debate. It is something that they have found they really enjoy doing together and they especially have a blast at the tournaments.
This last Saturday they attended a practice tournament (the official season does not begin until January) and they debated ALL DAY LONG!! It was definitely a very long day, but again, they had a lot of fun, met a lot of friends and had a lot of laughs.
I was able to sit in on their last round of debate and watch. Before I tell you my opinion of what happened, let me tell you that unfortunately, I tend to lean on the critical side when it comes to my girls and stuff like this. My mind seems to jump to what they need to do differently instead of what they did correctly.
Anyway, back to Saturday. They blew me away! They each spoke so eloquently yet with authority and they had great evidence and logic to back them up on every point. The team they debated consistently said things that, in my opinion, were not true. Some of it I believed was common knowledge and others it was up to the girls to make sure and lead the judge the correct way and they did a great job of doing that.
Out of all of the rounds, they were most sure that they won this one, so imagine the shock when they received the judges ballot at the end and saw that the judge voted for the negative team and left not one single comment on the ballot sheet explaining why this was so. I must admit that I was pretty shocked myself!
I woke up in the middle of the night that night and my "mom-thinking" kicked in! I was frustrated for my girls. They had presented what was "in my eyes" a perfect round of argumentation, refutation, speaking, etc. The judge even ranked both girls as the first and second speakers in the round.
As I lay in bed tossing and turning and thinking, the Lord spoke to me and pointed out that this is an example of life. In our lives, we each sit ready to judge the winner of the round. The two speakers in this eternal round are Truth (God) and Lie (Enemy) and it is strictly our call to decide which one we will choose. Truth stands before us with evidence, logic and eloquent speech and Lie spouts out untruth and attempts to trick us with his words. We can choose to be deceived and give the win to the Enemy, or we can choose to see truth and give the win, and our lives, to God.
Of course, I am not saying that the other team my girls debated was lying or that the judge was wrong. Debate is a subjective event. You learn to present your case to the judge in a way to convince the judge that you are right. If you lose, you obviously failed to do that. And there are many things that my girls will and have learned from that last round. So please don't think I am making a straight comparrison, because I am not.
Moving on.....I began to think about how frustrated I was for my girls and I thought that might be a bit of how God feels when his creation chooses to listen to the other side.
Then I began to think about my part in this eternal debate. Since I have already chosen the winner of my debate round and have given my life to Christ, I am now an active participant. I am to become part of God's evidence and words. I am here to let His light shine through me and into all of the world, helping all who sit to judge for themselves see the truth. How am I doing?
Do I take an active role for the Lord in presenting His truth? Sometimes. Sometimes I feel the call so strongly that it overwhelms me and I can't help but jump in and shout truth!
Do I take an active role for the Enemy in presenting His lies? Sometimes. There are times through my actions that my life screams "Do as I say, not as I do!" which many times just causes people to turn and run into the enemy's lies.
Do I take an inactive role and just sit in the audience and watch it all go down? Many times! How many times to I choose silence and inactivity over participation??!! Many!! So many times I get so wrapped up in my own little world that I don't even think about presenting truth. So many times I get involved in deep thought and just rush past people that are in the middle of judging their debate round without giving them another thought.
I don't want others to go to hell. I don't want the Enemy to win a round. I don't want my Lord to feel sad over the loss of one of His creations.
Now the question is ....Am I going to choose to do anything about it? Will you?
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