I like taking real life events and taking away lessons from them that we can use in our lives. Clearly. I already did a post over how sprint car racing is like life. Now I’m going to tell you what we can learn from a hockey game referring to the game I attended just a month ago for my birthday. With all the pictures, of course. So here are 11 (important) life lessons we can learn from a hockey game.

1. God’s plans aren’t always your plans.

And we learn this at a hockey game because have you ever tried to take a photo of the arena, but it’s too dark?

Just me…? Fine. But sometimes things don’t go your way. I mean, I wanted that picture. But daylight savings occurred instead. And I’m sure there are reasons behind that just like there are reasons God allows things to happen. But you have to remember…

“As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” – Isaiah 55:9 NIV

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.” – Proverbs 3:5-6 NIV

Are we really going to argue with God? I mean, seriously. He knows all things, and He promises a good plan. And He has kept His promises.

2. Always give thanks; let the good overrule the bad.

Then I got the picture up above that I really, really like. And I have a choice to count all of the horrible pictures I’ve taken in my life or – worse yet – all the missed opportunities I’ve had for good pictures, or I can be grateful for the pictures I do have. And this is related to hockey because…pictures.

But the thing is, we all have a choice to be grateful. I could of laugh at myself as a kid because on bad days, I would repeatedly make a list in my head of everything that went wrong. For example, let’s say I forgot something important. Then I got dirt on my shoes. Then one of my friends blew me off. The list would continue, and then I’d keep track of every bad thing that happened and pout.

But why didn’t I turn that around? Instead of counting everything bad, why didn’t I make a list of everything good?

For example, I woke up. I’m healthy. God sent His Son for me. I have nice clothes. It continues.

We, as humans, tend to always look for the bad. And doing so, we miss out on so much good. God tells us to be thankful in all situations, and this is something I still work on.

The other day, my dad hit a deer on the way to work. It totally killed the grill and some other stuff on the front of our car. And I’m not an idiot, I know that won’t be cheap to fix. But he’s okay, and that is huge. He still made it to work that day.

Count the good.

K, we’ll actually talk about hockey now.

3. Life is fast paced, but make sure you stop and slooow down.

This relates to hockey because: Umm, have you seen how fast paced hockey is?!! Even trying to get food and all that stuff, there’s like five million people, and everyone is in a hurry. Hence, why this photo IS BLURRY.

But you have to stop and slooow down and focus on what matters. Even in hockey there is intermission which means a) they get a break so they don’t die, b) I got food so I don’t starve, and c) I got clear photos so my blog doesn’t die. Everybody wins! And do you miss much by stopping and taking a break? NO. And breaks are important.

Back when I saw Trans-Siberian Orchestra, I had to pee so bad. But I didn’t want to miss the concert. I had to go so bad, though, that my dad eventually caught on, and I went to the bathroom. No, I didn’t really WANT to miss the concert, but it was necessary. And sometimes it’s like that in life, too. Our society can be so fixed on getting everything done and getting wrapped into our busy schedules that we forget to take time for God or their own mental health. But I promise if you do this, nothing will die. In fact, you’ll feel much better. I certainly did. 😉

4. Persistence pays off.

This relates to hockey because: duh, have you seen them try so hard to score? Some nights it doesn’t come, or it doesn’t come right when you need it to, but persistence does pay off.

Especially when you are persisting in prayer. God works through prayer, and He hears us. Sometimes He doesn’t answer when we want Him to. Sometimes the answer isn’t what we want, but lots of times it’s what we need. And in the end, we’ll see that. He is looking after us. Don’t give up. Trust in Him.

5. It’s easy to get wrapped into Satan’s lies.

How this relates to hockey: there’s temptation everywhere. You can see it at a hockey game, too.

Fights, swearing, beer, etc. It’s everywhere. And Satan will go out of his way to make you believe sin is okay and cause you to never change.

Don’t fall for it.

God calls us to be holy, and while we’ll never be perfect, we need to grow and strive to change. We can’t just make excuses to stay stuck in our sin – we need to grow. I’m not very tolerant when it comes to the excuse “it’s their life, let them be happy” as people say about homosexuality, drugs, etc. I mean, in a way, it is their life, but it’s not. As Christians, our whole lives need to belong to God, meaning that we surrender and want what He wants, which is to take care of our bodies and do what He says.

But He did give us free will, and in that sense, we can’t just shove things down people’s throats. They make their own choices, but we don’t have to agree with them. So I’m not going to be the typical blog over here that shouts at you happiness, happiness, happiness. As Leonard Ravenhill said, “If you want to be popular, preach happiness. If you want to be unpopular, preach holiness.”

6. There will be bad days, and there will be good days.

This relates to hockey because ohhh myyy goshhh have you seen the Wild lately? Let me just say it’s not good. But then there are the days they kick some butt! (Ah…glorious Stadium Series memories.)

Whenever Hunter tries to tell me the Wild suck, I always reply to him saying, “Two words: Stadium Series.” This presumably sends him into a rant about his “great team” and my “horrible team”, and I sit there laughing, reiterating “Stadium Series”. It drives him nuts. That’s the point.

Anyway, I guess you could call this a bad game for the Hawks. (Clearly. Somebody said at the end it was a bad “start”. I’m like, the score was 6-1, I think we can say it was more than a bad “start”.)

On the bad days, your faith will be tested. Don’t let it get you down. Greater things are coming, and God has a plan for you. The bad days DO NOT last, so please don’t let them get you down or compromise on your faith. God will carry you through. Just like you shouldn’t let a bad game define you as a hockey player (unless you’re the Blackhawks ;).

7. You should be taking lots of pictures.

This relates to hockey because one day you’re going to look back and have all of these memories from hockey games.

That’s all I have to say. You can’t ever tell me I take too many pictures because I’m going to have tons of memories to look back on. 😉

8. Appreciate your family.

I mentioned this in how racing is like life, but I need to say it again because you are stuck with your family for the rest of your life unlike friends. So appreciate them. If you’re in a bad situation with one of your relatives, don’t give up on them! Pray and pray believing because God turns broken messes into something beautiful!

9. Sometimes you have to compromise; have a good attitude and make the best of it.

This relates to hockey because I wanted these fries, okay? I got them, but then there was no ketchup.

And Mom would not take me back to get some. So I had to eat the fries plain, and they were actually pretty good. But I never would’ve known that if I pouted and decided to boycott the fries.

10. God will use anyone who’s willing.

This relates to hockey because there are some pretty basic pictures you can take that turn into something awesome, and while going to a hockey is a rather simple event, a lot of memories can be made.

If you’re willing. The first time I went to a hockey game, I was pretty skeptical. I knew hockey existed but had no knowledge of it and really no desire to go see a game, but my dad had tickets and wanted to take all of us, so I had a positive attitude and tried to make the most of the night.

And now hockey is my favorite sport to watch.

Also, look at the picture above of my fries. A simple picture of fries, yes? Right. But look in the background. There’s BOKEH. And if you don’t know what bokeh is, I give up. I have had to explain it to so many people, so just google it and take advantage of the technology we have.

BONUS! Dippin’ Dots are the best things ever.

Don’t leave without them or pictures of them.

11. Be grateful.

If you get the opportunity to go to a hockey game, be thankful.

Appreciate the little things in life. Be grateful and praise Jesus.

And one more thing!

If you are able to get a picture with Crash,

DO IT.

But don’t trust him to be your friend. 😉 One time he kissed my hand, and ever since he’s dissed me. I guess he realized I’m way out of his league. 😉

Have you been to a hockey game? [You might also like: Reasons I Love Hockey and Let’s Catch Up: Hockey Games!] Tell me about your experience!