For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love , and of self-discipline.
II Timothy 1:7
There are three good things you can do as a Christian. You can use power, you can use love, or you can use self-discipline. Today, I’m on self-discipline. This is what you use to make yourself do something or not do something. Kind of like a combined gas pedal and brake. You use it to make yourself do what you chose to do, not what you may feel like doing at the moment.
There are three good things you can do with the ball as a basketball player. You can shoot, you can pass, and you can dribble. You are much better off if you have determined which of these you are going to do before you catch the ball. Today I’ll talk about dribbling. It is the third choice. Before you start to dribble you should have a destination in mind. Before you stop dribbling you should have arrived at a better place than when you started. Sometimes the best choice is to chose not to dribble.
In the half court game we play it is very common for the rebounder to immediately start dribbling the ball out to the three point line to clear it. Notice that two or three times in a game, I’ll get a rebound and hold it for a second or two. Sometimes a couple of people will guard me and think that I’m going to stay there and let them steal it. But what I’m doing is giving Steve time to set up somewhere at the three point line so that when I can make the pass out to him and he can immediately go up for his shot.
So don’t automatically dribble when you get the ball. Have a plan. Use self-discipline so that you chose when to use a dribble and when to wait on dribbling.
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