Instant Gratification: Lessons Learned from Baseball

I am a baseball fan. My favorite team still is the Detroit Tigers but living in the DFW area, I root for the Rangers except when they are playing my team. Yesterday was the supposed trade deadline. I tracked the various deals all day long. Both the Tigers and the Rangers were in the news. The Tigers because they pulled the trigger on a big deal, the Rangers because they didn't. The team from Detroit traded two prospective pitchers to Seattle for a veteran pitcher, Jerrod Washburn. The Rangers are acknowledged to have one of the best farm systems in baseball. They have a number of great pitching prospects but they refused to trade any of them just to get one veteran who might help them win this year. I was hoping the Tigers remembered 1987. If you are a fan you know the name John Smoltz. He's a great pitcher, probably Hall of Fame material. That year the Tigers traded him for Doyle Alexander. The Tigers won their division but lost in the playoff. Doyle Alexander left and John Smoltz made history.

There is a pressure in baseball to win now. I know the Rangers felt pressure over the last couple of days to do that. The question is, do we mortgage the future to have a chance at being successful right now? The human inclination is to want immediate success. Why wait when you can have something now?

I think much of our current economic situation is the result of a desire for instant gratification. Why wait for something when we can have it now? I'll just put it on my credit card. That way I can enjoy it while I am paying it off. Our nation's consumer debt is sky high because of this line of thinking. We are also raising a generation of consumers, our kids, who expect to have the latest and the best right now.

This is an issue that needs to be discussed between you and your children. If they are old enough to ask for things, they are old enough to understand the word "no." Once you've accomplished that with them you need to sit down and explain the how and why behind the answer. There is much to be gained from learning to wait. Plan prudently and then wait on the Lord.