We Easily 'See' How Others Could Do Better

In Matthew 7:3 and Luke 6:42, Jesus asks the question, "Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in our brother's eye when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye?" There are many more references by Christ, which calls us to NOT judge others. My grandfather, E.V. Bennett reminded his wife and daughters to 'tend to your own knitting.' I have often reminded others that it is very easy to coach the other guy's team. It is equally easy to raise his children and manicure his lawn.


I was blessed with some the opportunity to coach some talented basketball players. One such player was Andy Kaufmann (Jacksonville high school) 1985-to-1988. Andy lead the State three (3) consecutive seasons as top individual scorer with 32 Points Per Game. Today (2014) Kaufmann remains the IHSA boys' basketball second all-time individual scorer behind Charlie 'Chico' Vaughn of Tamms, Illinois.




Andy scored 50 points in a game on two occasions; this tied the individual Jacksonville scoring mark held jointly by Francine Blackburn (1980). The tied record caused many JHS fans to ask me why I didn't allow Andy to break the record. The answer is a simple straight forward 'deal;' I never gave the matter a first or second thought! In those particular games when Kaufmann scored his fifty (50) points, I thought about the following: (1) Do we have this game won, (2) Can I get more reserves into the contest; those players who practice as hard as Kaufmann but play much less, (3) If I leave Kaufmann in to get sixty (60) points should I keep the other four starters in the game so they might elevate their scoring averages and (4) what goes around comes around...how is my coaching colleague, sitting on the other bench, going to pick up the pieces for his team next Monday at his practice????


Therefore, I coached my own team, making those tougher decisions in the arena, and ignored those who thought they wanted to coach on Friday and Saturday nights; they could 'tend to their own knittin.' This scenario plays out in all walks of life...don't you ever ask why don't the talk show critic-pundits don't run for public office and why don't those sport analysts get out from behind the microphone and grab a coaching whistle?




I'll just bet that Tonto once said to his 'second-guessing tribesman, "Walk a mile in my moccasins before you rip-the-mask-off-the-old Lone Ranger.""