{"id":1693,"date":"2016-08-04T01:47:14","date_gmt":"2016-08-04T01:47:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theprodigalpig.com\/?p=1693"},"modified":"2016-04-04T02:15:10","modified_gmt":"2016-04-04T02:15:10","slug":"reaching-for-victory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.theprodigalpig.com\/?p=1693","title":{"rendered":"Reaching For Victory"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"08-02-15<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Me:\u00a0 Playing a quick game Prodigal?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Prodigal:\u00a0 Yeah, I enjoy sports and all the competition.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Me:\u00a0 I have a sports story for you today that I think you will enjoy.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This is from the book Start Where You Are by Chuck Swindoll<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Born prematurely, Wilma contracted double pneumonia (twice) and scarlet fever.\u00a0 The worst was a bout with polio, which left her with a crooked left leg and a foot twisted inward.\u00a0 Metal leg braces, stares from neighborhood kids, and six years of bus rides to Nashville for treatments could have driven this young girl into a self-made shell.<\/p>\n

But Wilma refused.<\/p>\n

Wilma kept dreaming.<\/p>\n

She was determined not to allow her disability to get in the way of her dreams.\u00a0 Maybe her determination was generated by the faith of her Christian mother, who often said, “Honey, the most important thing in life is for you to believe it and keep on trying.”<\/p>\n

By age eleven, Wilma decided to “believe it.”\u00a0 And through sheer determination and an indomitable spirit to persevere, regardless, she forced herself to learn how to walk without the braces.<\/p>\n

At age twelve she made a wonderful discovery:\u00a0 Girls could run and jump and play ball just like boys!\u00a0 Her older sister Yvonne was quite good at basketball, so Wilma decided to challenge her on the court, She began to improve.\u00a0 The two of them ultimately went out for the same school team.\u00a0 Yvonne made the final twelve, but Wilma didn’t.\u00a0 But because her father wouldn’t allow Yvonne to travel with the team without her sister as a chaperone, Wilma found herself often in the presence of the coach.<\/p>\n

One day she built up enough nerve to confront the man with her magnificent obsession–her lifetime dream.\u00a0 She blurted out, “If you will give me ten minutes of your time every day–and only ten minutes– I will give you a world-class athlete.”<\/p>\n

He took her up on the offer.\u00a0 The result is history.\u00a0 Young Wilma finally won a starting position on the basketball squad;\u00a0 and when that season ended, she decided to try out for the track team.\u00a0 What a decision!<\/p>\n

In her first race, she beat her girlfriend.\u00a0 Then she beat all the girls in her high school….then, every high-school girl in the state of Tennessee.\u00a0 Wilma was only fourteen, but already a champion.<\/p>\n

Shortly thereafter, although still in high school, she was invited to join the Tigerbelle’s\u00a0 track team at Tennessee State University.\u00a0 She began a serious training program after school and on weekends.\u00a0 As she improved, she continued winning short dashed and the 440-yard relay.<\/p>\n

Two years later she was invited to try out for the Olympics.\u00a0 She qualified and ran in the 1956 games at Melbourne, Australia.\u00a0 She won a bronze medal as her team placed third in the 400-meter relay, a bittersweet victory.\u00a0 She had won–but she decided that next time she would “go for the gold.”<\/p>\n

To give her “the winner’s edge” as a world-class athlete, she began a do-it-yourself program similar to the one she had employed to get herself out of those leg braces.\u00a0 Not only did she run at six and ten every morning and at three every afternoon, she would often sneak down the dormitory fire escape from eight to ten o’clock and run on the track before bedtime.\u00a0 Week after week, month in and month out, Wilma maintained the same grueling schedule…for over twelve hundred days.<\/p>\n

Now we’re ready for Rome.\u00a0 When the sleek, trim, young black lady, only twenty years old, walked out onto the field, she was ready.\u00a0 She had paid the price.\u00a0 Even those eighty thousand fans could sense the spirit of victory.\u00a0 It was electrifying.\u00a0\u00a0 As she began her warm-up sprints, a cadenced chant began to emerge from the stands:\u00a0 “Vilma…..Vilma!”\u00a0 The crowd was as confident as she that she could win.<\/p>\n

And win she did.<\/p>\n

She breezed to an easy victory in the 100-meter dash.\u00a0 Then she won the 200-meter dash.\u00a0 And finally, she anchored the U.S. women’s team to another first-place finish in the 400-meter relay.\u00a0 Three gold medals–the first woman in history to win three gold medals in track and field.\u00a0 I should add that each of the three races was won in world-record time.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Malachi 3:1<\/p>\n

Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me.\u00a0 And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Jennifer Van Allen<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

www.theprodigalpig.com<\/p>\n

www.faithincounseling.org<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Me:\u00a0 Playing a quick game Prodigal?   Prodigal:\u00a0 Yeah, I enjoy sports and all the competition.   Me:\u00a0 I have a sports story for you today that I think you will enjoy.   This is from the book Start Where You Are by Chuck Swindoll   Born prematurely, Wilma contracted double pneumonia (twice) and … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nReaching For Victory - The Prodigal Pig<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/www.theprodigalpig.com\/?p=1693\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Reaching For Victory - 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