Mike Krzyzewski [pronounced “shuh-shef-skee”], nicknamned “Coach K”, was head coach of the Duke University Blue Devils basketball team from 1980 to 2022. He led his team to 5 national titles.
He is known as being meticulous in his pursuit of basketball success. In his book titled, Leading with the Heart, he attributes much of his success to his mother.
He writes, “You want to know who my hero is? My hero is my mother. Everything she did was something that she put her own trademark on. Whatever it was, something as simple as making a batch of chocolate chip cookies.
“When we were a little poorer, she put three chips in every cookie. When we got a little more money, it’d be four chips. But if you got a chocolate chip cookie that had only two chips, two chocolate chips in it, you knew it wasn’t my mother’s.
“And from that simple lesson I’ve taken the principle that everything we do has our own personal signature on it, so we want to do it the best way we possibly can.”
That’s a pretty good philosophy. Put your personal stamp on everything you do. In every worthwhile thing you do, give it your very best.
St. Paul put his personal signature on the New Testament and upon the burgeoning young Church of his day. And he did it like Coach Krzyzewski’s mother. He gave his very best. He held nothing back. No matter our age or our circumstances, God calls you and me to give our very best and to hold nothing back.
I had a housekeeper at a parish in Chicago who kept asking me: “Who are you saving it for?”
Are YOU giving YOUR family members and YOUR gifts from God YOUR very best attention and service?
GOD GIVES US THE INGREDIENTS FOR OUR DAILY BREAD, BUT GOD EXPECTS US TO DO THE BAKING!
