August 28, 2008
It was tournament day—the culmination of an entire year’s work pressed into one eight-hour day for Liza Gmetro and her Bible Quiz teams from Acts 29 Fellowship in Hamtramck, Michigan. The teenaged participants’ emotions ranged from excitement to apprehension as they faced their competition from quiz to quiz. After the second quiz, Shantanique,* who had recently accepted Christ, hit her limit. She had had two not-so-bad performances, but to her, she had failed miserably and was ready to give up.
“I quit!” Shantanique told one of her coaches after the second quiz. “This is stupid anyway. All you guys care about is winning.”
“It’s not just about winning,” said Shantanique’s coach. “Didn’t you make a commitment to Jesus?”
“Yeah,” the quizzer muttered.
“Then you can’t give up on your commitment to honor Him in everything you do,” said the coach. “Quizzing isn’t all about winning. It’s about commitment to character. It’s about your attitude.”
The teen left the room and ran into another coach, with whom she had a similar conversation. That coach challenged her to make her own choice; it was up to Shantanique what kind of character she wanted to portray.
When the third quiz was ready to begin, Shantanique walked in. “I’m going to quiz,” she told her coach. Shantanique had her most successful quiz of the day. Her choice to have a new attitude helped her win that game for her team and enabled her to continue quizzing in the subsequent competitions.
“Shantanique’s team took first place in its division,” said Gmetro. “And God taught her a valuable lesson—winning isn’t everything. It’s how you play the game that counts.”
*Names changed