The Ball Doesn’t Lie

For the past eleven years, my brother, Boyd, has hosted a fundraiser golf tournament for the Boys and Girls Club of Northern Utah which begins with a clinic.  In past years, I have watched Boyd teach the clinic with his skilled children as examples of what he is teaching.  This year, my brother, Danny, taught the clinic with two PGA tour players from northern Utah, Patrick Fishburn and Zac Blair, as examples.  
 
Patrick at 6’4″ and 220 lbs is powerful off the tee.  Zac is 5’6″, 155 lbs and scores with his wedges and putter.  With such differences, Danny pointed out that in golf there are only two fundamentals, the angle of the club face and the club path at impact with the ball.   Everything else a player does: grip, alignment, or swing is about using their particular body and abilities to consistently generate the best angle and path to create the shot they desire.  “The golf ball flight tells you the story of impact.  Pay attention to the story the golf ball is telling you.  The ball doesn’t lie,” he taught.

Each child of God comes to earth with different circumstances, different capacities and opportunities, different strengths and weaknesses and we all come with one invitation to follow the Savior, Jesus Christ, and become like Him.  As mere mortals we seek to imitate the Master and so often our efforts result in figurative golf balls all over the course, nowhere near the hole.  Yet He stands near teaching us to use our given circumstances to strengthen us and our capacities to create the club face angle along the path that will move us closer and closer to being like Him.  This life is a game we can all win.  “He inviteth [us] all to come unto Him and partake of His goodness; and He denieth none that come unto Him, black and white, bond and free, male and female; and He remembereth the heathen; and all are alike unto God,..” (2 Nephi 26:33)

As we practice and tune our hearts and our minds to the whisperings of His Holy Spirit, He will show us all things that we should do to create the impact that propels our lives along His covenant path.  Our story will then tell of His mercy, His compassion, His attention to the details and His wisdom in shaping our lives with increasing access to His power that will give us all that He has.
 

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