{"id":445,"date":"2012-09-19T01:40:45","date_gmt":"2012-09-19T01:40:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kandynolesstevens.com\/?p=445"},"modified":"2012-09-19T01:40:45","modified_gmt":"2012-09-19T01:40:45","slug":"11-days-to-go-we-are-family","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/?p=445","title":{"rendered":"11 Days to Go: We are Family"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I always get a kick out of calling my sister-in-law\u2019s cell phone.\u00a0 While waiting to talk to her, you get a rousing rendition of \u201cWe are Family\u201d sung by Sister Sledge. \u00a0It always makes me giggle.\u00a0 My definition of family isn\u2019t confined to simple biological connections. \u00a0I think that God gave me a family of birth AND\u00a0a much bigger family by His plans.\u00a0 For both I am thankful.<\/p>\n

But what I really want to talk about is one of the \u201cfamilies\u201d that Reed belonged to and now, Sawyer does as well.\u00a0 That family is the Lakeview Football Family.\u00a0 This brotherhood is one that shapes a young man\u2019s life, and often teaches them about more than a game with a pigskin ball.\u00a0 When you get really good coaches as they all have experienced, you learn that football is a small part of your overall purpose in life.<\/p>\n

All the Lakeview Lakers have learned about the 3 F\u2019s: Faith, Family & Football. \u00a0For the current roster of players, they have known more than their fair share of adversity through the loss of teammates, friends, brothers, and fathers as well as\u00a0supporting a coach\u2019s family as they go through a battle with a bigger opponent than the other team. The injuries that are often synonymous with the game of football seem small in comparison to the burdens their broad shoulders have had to bear at such a young age.<\/p>\n

While winning is fun, it certainly isn\u2019t everything, and I would be hard pressed to find a more caring and giving group of young men.\u00a0 Their character shows on and off the field.\u00a0 When a friend or foe is hurt\u00a0in\u00a0the game,\u00a0many take a knee and they pray.\u00a0 When someone is hurting they show up or at least call, even if that means one is in one hospital and the other is another hospital miles away. Some even travelled over 430 miles to say a final goodbye to Reed.\u00a0The bonds are deeper than 4 quarters on a grassy field.<\/p>\n

In school they are leaders and they make a difference.\u00a0 Some of them have quite a following among the elementary kids, who admire them not just because football players are cool.\u00a0 But more so, it is because they are genuinely nice kids who aren\u2019t too cool to \u201chang out\u201d with kids half their age and a quarter their size.<\/p>\n

At Reed\u2019s Run, they are going to be present one last time honor their friend, classmate, teammate and brother.\u00a0 They will be out there helping with the inflatables and selling concessions during the movie.\u00a0 \u00a0Their presence means more to my family than they will ever know.\u00a0 The bond of brothers is one not easily broken. \u00a0Even though I am not a member of this team, I have more than once benefitted from their kindness, usually a hug when I needed it the most.\u00a0 So I don\u2019t care what any scoreboard ever says, their place in my heart will never change. I will always be a Laker fan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I always get a kick out of calling my sister-in-law\u2019s cell phone.\u00a0 While waiting to talk to her, you get a rousing rendition of \u201cWe are Family\u201d sung by Sister Sledge. \u00a0It always makes me giggle.\u00a0 My definition of family isn\u2019t confined to simple biological connections. \u00a0I think that God gave me a family of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[12,1013,201,227,335,526],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=445"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}