How I prayed during my basketball game

I love playing sports, especially basketball. I play point guard, and I think basketball is a really fun game. Basketball teaches me how to be part of a team and how we can support each other.

Last year we had a game against a hard team, and during the first half we were losing badly. So at half time, I felt I needed to pray. I excused myself to go to the bathroom, where I could get quiet, and I prayed. I don’t remember the exact words I prayed with, but I remember thinking about some things I’d learned in the Christian Science Sunday School: that God was with me and my teammates, that God gives everyone the qualities they need to do their best, and that we can always hear God’s ideas, which are always good. I knew we weren’t competing to be good or to get a victory, but were playing because we loved the game and being together as a team.

One of my favorite passages from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy describes what I was feeling at the time: “God is everywhere, and nothing apart from Him is present or has power” (p. 473). I knew that God was right there on the court with us and that God’s, Love’s, presence was powerful!