Letter Lesson 1

Letter/Lesson #1

Dear Member,

“Tiger Triumphs against Heckled Opponent”

This was the headline of a USA Today story reporting the February 2004 Accenture Match Play Golf Championship in Carlsbad, California. Davis Love III was playing for the championship against Tiger Woods. According to the USA Today article, on the tee at the fifth hole (23rd of the match) a fan, who had rejoiced after Love missed a par putt on the 20th hole that squared the match, yelled “No Love.” Love demanded that the fan be removed, or Love would not continue playing. Later, Love was quoted as saying, “If you play at any other level, there are no distractions, period.” Love also said, “People may heckle in other sports, but golf is different. It’s a gentleman’s game. We should be respected. The golf course is our office. You don’t go into someone’s office in business and distract them while they work.”

1.2 Million Dollars Later

Yes, $1.2 million is what Tiger Woods won in that match after Davis Love III was distracted. “It definitely distracted me,” Love said in the article. Tiger Woods, on the other hand, estimated that he probably hears hecklers a half dozen times a round but tries to block out the distraction.

What’s the Difference between Tiger Woods and Davis Love III?

Should fans heckle? Absolutely not, but they do. Tiger’s dad, Earl Woods, knew how to separate Tiger from the crowd, even the elite crowd that would include golfers like Davis Love III. The difference and the secret can be found in a book called Training A Tiger by Earl Woods with Peter McDaniel. On page 12 Earl Woods writes, “In order to get an athlete to perform a sport instinctively, you must start the learning process when the child is young enough so that the performance is totally ingrained.” Then on page 148 Earl says, “Son, this fall I will put you through Earl Woods’s Finishing School.” Here are some excerpts as Earl continues: “During finishing school, Tiger was exposed to every devious, diabolical, insidious trick that any future opponent could pull on him. He later told me it was the most difficult experience of his entire life. But he learned, and he became mentally tough. Later I assured him that in his entire life, no opponent would be as mentally tough as he, ever!” Who knows how much better Davis Love III could be had he gone through Earl Woods’s Finishing School.

Focus with Purpose

Earl Woods knew what he wanted Tiger to be smart in and to focus on—golf. Earl had a plan. He implemented that plan with determination and purpose, and the process started when Tiger was very young. Earl guided Tiger to become a huge success.

Not a Clue!

Unlike Earl Woods, my wife and I had no clue what we wanted for our son, much less how to begin. Guess what. That’s a great place to be when you start asking God for help. Please refer back to my “waiting room prayer” that I shared with you in the initial website presentation. Besides praying for the health of my wife and baby during the delivery, I also asked God how to raise Jon. During this prayer, these words popped out, “Lord, please help Linda and me raise a really, very, very smart kid.” But the question “smart in what?” came into my mind. After more praying the answer became clear. I wanted our child to be really, very, very smart regarding spiritual/physical health, education, and life’s work—things in which Linda and I were not smart. I reasoned if our child could be smart in these areas, everything else would fall in place. And it did. Praise God! “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.” (James 1:6-7) Did God through an earth-shaking miracle fill us with mind-boggling knowledge, thereby making us qualified to run around telling others how smart and special we were? No, the answer was very simple and humbling and may even sound foolish to a lot of people.

God’s Awesome Grace

God answered by giving Linda and me a burning desire to read His Word, The Holy Bible. He also gave us a tiny seed of faith that in His Word we would find the answers to my “waiting room prayer.” If you look at the initial website presentation, you’ll see that all of my prayer has been answered. Where better to get knowledge about anything than from God Himself or from people He works through? I’m sure you agree or you wouldn’t still be reading this letter/lesson. “Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it.” (Proverbs 22:6) Yes, when God led me to this scripture, I knew that our understanding of it and applying the depth of this scripture to Jon’s life was indeed the answer to my “waiting room prayer.” For more than two years I studied and prayed over Proverbs 22:6, asking God to reveal its meanings and blessings. Along the way, God also gave us a focus to pay attention to anything and everything we read or experienced that might help us apply Proverbs 22:6 to Jon’s life.

Remember the Swimming Pool Story?

Please go back to the initial website presentation and take a few minutes to read this story very carefully. I’m about to share something with you that’s so powerful it will explode your mind with possibilities about how to help your child grow up to be a really, very, very smart kid!

God’s Focus Paid Off

God had given us the focus to pay attention to everything that would help us apply Proverbs 22:6 to Jon’s life. So the swimming pool adventure became much more than just a funny story. It helped explain one of the blessings of Proverbs 22:6. “But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty.” (1 Corinthians 1:27) It was after Linda had shared with me her and Jon’s experience at the swimming pool and after the laughter had subsided that I realized why God says in Proverbs 22:6 “Train up a child….” The Hebrew meaning for “child” is “from infancy to adolescence.” Sure, Jon’s misunderstanding of what Linda had said was funny, but it was much, much more. Jon was at an age of literal interpretation. He thought his mom wanted him to pull down his swimming trunks, stand on the side of the pool, and go pee, even with several dozen people watching and laughing. It never dawned on Jon that Linda was frustrated and was joking about his doing what the rest of the kids were obviously doing in the pool under the water. Jon heard her words, interpreted them in his mind, and acted accordingly. Mom would be pleased that he followed her instructions! How impressionable and trainable children are at the early stages of their lives!

Just Think

By the time Jon was five or six or even younger, Linda would’ve had to call out the National Guard to force Jon to put himself and his mom in such an embarrassing position. Proverbs 22:6 says to start training your child when your child is a baby. Most parents know teaching a child certain things early in life is important. The difference with Linda and me is the depth God has taken us through His Word to understand and apply Proverbs 22:6. Teaching means to increase in learning, to give knowledge, or to ascertain by seeing. Why doesn’t God say, “Teach up a child…” instead of “Train up a child…?” Because training means to initiate, discipline, dedicate, or to be narrow. Teaching is only a part of training, although a very important part. Why start the training when your child is a baby? Because when you start training during infancy, there’s a promise from God for you and your baby: Whatever you train your baby to do or be, he or she will not depart or turn away from! But train your child to do what?

Train Your Child to Do Everything—

—everything you understand to be important. Up until your child starts to school, usually around age five or six, you have a huge window of opportunity to plant any type of seed you want, good or bad, and as time goes by, you water those seeds. That’s what Linda and I did. And trust me, these seeds will be planted whether or not a parent tries on purpose or whether it happens otherwise. As a child grows older, the window of opportunity starts to close. Other people then start to influence your child, such as teachers, peers, and others in general. This is the reason many parents pull their hair out trying to figure out what went wrong with their teenagers.

So What Now?

The main goal of this very important letter/lesson is for you to get the concept deep in your spirit to learn everything you can from Proverbs 22:6. Start to focus on ways to apply this knowledge to your child’s life as a baby to help him/her become a really, very, very smart kid—like we did with our son. Praise God again! Future letter/lessons will share what our family learned and applied to Jon’s life. My prayer for you and your family is to make this effort a priority and to act on it daily.

Through Faith!

I believe your mind is already swimming with possibilities after reading just this first letter/lesson. Hang on! This is only the beginning of what you’ll learn—little bits of knowledge you can apply on purpose on a daily basis.

Back to Tiger—Bad Trouble

Life has changed dramatically for Tiger Woods, to say the least. Earl Woods taught his son to be the best at golf, and Tiger was on track to be the best ever, even surpassing Jack Nicklaus. But then Tiger cheated. He cheated on his wife and got caught. He was unfaithful not just with another woman but with prostitutes. His wife divorced him, and his relationship with his two kids will never be the same. Since then, everything has been downhill for Tiger. He was trained to be very, very smart in areas of physical health, education, and life’s work. But what about being trained to be very, very smart regarding spiritual health? Is it possible to be trained to be a faithful spouse? I believe it is, especially if you believe in the power of Proverbs 22:6, which I do. That kind of training must include showing a child “the way he should go” in how he or she treats people. Training in respect, consideration and appreciation for others should start as early as possible and continue all through a child’s growing years. If Tiger’s spiritual training had been as intense as his training in golf, would it have prevented his fall? This question and possible answers will be explored in another letter/lesson. Here’s some homework for you: after reading and absorbing Letter/Lesson #1, can you think of ways Tiger could have been trained that would have prevented losing his family? Also, think about this: could your thoughts and actions help save your own child from a devastating situation later on in his or her life? Email me back, and I may include your answers in a future letter/lesson.

Write Me

The next letter/lesson will continue looking at some more blessings from Proverbs 22:6. We’ll also start to share a variety of specific opportunities you can apply to your child’s life to help him/her become a really, very, very smart kid concerning his/her spiritual/physical health, education, and life’s work.

Until then, please email me at [email protected] with any questions, comments, thoughts, or suggestions you may have.

God bless,

Paw Paw

P.S. You may want to print this and future letter/lessons to form your own “Tomorrow’s Heroes Library” for you and your family. Beyond this, you may want to consider adding your personal notes, thoughts, and insights to customize this program to fit your family.

Edited by DC

Unless otherwise indicated, Scriptures quotations are from

the New King James Version.