Compete v Complement

TRANSCRIPT: Good morning, Five Minute Families! Leaves are falling, and rakes are out. Piles are being jumped into while jackets are on. Come fall into our family topic for this week: to compete or to complement. In 1 Corinthians 9:24 Paul uses a competition analogy to help us understand our striving for our eternal prize: “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it.” Paul again uses the competition analogy in 2 Timothy 2:5, “An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules.” As the Australian Institute for Public Affairs states, “Competition teaches children teamwork, and equips them with the tools they need to develop relationships, form partnerships and work together to solve problems.” Through competition, kids can learn how to work hard and stick with something challenging. Since competing is a striving against one another to gain or win something, we know that conflict can arise within times of striving. If conflict creeps into competition, the efforts can become negative, wholly self-centered, and destructive to self-esteem. However, when a person is not challenged with competition at all, that person can become entitled and less of a wise risk-taker. Competition can teach persistence, perseverance, and resilience. Let’s turn for a moment to complement. We do not mean compliments as in, “Wow, you look great today.” (why, thank you!) No, we mean complement with an ‘e’ and that complement means “add to (something) in a way that enhances or improves it; make perfect.” And, the perfect example of complementing is the trinity. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are not in competition with each other; each reveals different aspects of the God-head. That’s full complementation. Since the family is an illustration of our relationship with God, we must understand how to complement each other. “You’re doing great babe.” Not that type of complement, Kim. Oh, yeah, right. As Phil Ware so succinctly stated i