Life Lessons from Coach Taylor

It’s not a secret that Friday Night Lights is my current obsession. Both the husband and I are totally hooked. In fact, as much as we love the show, we’re both to the point where we are thinking, “okay, when will this be done so that we can get on with our lives?!” Honestly. Right now my house is a little messier than normal, the meals are a little less well put together than usual, the laundry is a little less caught up than usual and the hubby’s progress in the shop is a little less up to date than usual. In other words, we have been wasting spending hours and hours and hours of our lives chilling on the couch with the ever handsome Coach Taylor (or the ever beautiful Tami Taylor, my husband might add).

In the meantime, when we’re not getting ourselves acquainted with the residents of Dillon, Texas we’ve been getting serious about house hunting. If you’ve ever done this before, you probably know how oh!so!fun! it can be. In this family, the husband is the chillaxed, easy going partner and I am the high strung, stressy stress face. So you can imagine how awesome house hunting may be for two people like ourselves.

By now you may be wondering how a major Friday Night Lights binge and house hunting are related. Just stick with me. Trust me. They are. Because while FNL is normally just a few hours of mindless entertainment, I have found that there are a times when major life lessons can be drawn from the episodes. These moments make me think that perhaps I’m not completely wasting my life away while I sit around watching hours of TV a day.

There’s a scene somewhere way, way back, season two, I believe, where Coach and Tami are facing a situation and find themselves at a crossroads. Don’t worry, if you haven’t watched yet, I’m going to set up the context of the scene without giving anything away. They are in the midst of a situation where they have to make a decision for their child. And the solution doesn’t seem clear to them. Tami approaches the situation with a sort of “WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO?!?” attitude. You know, the same kind of attitude that I often have when discussing important life decisions, such as purchasing a home, with my husband.

In the midst of Tami’s miniature freak out, Coach puts his hands on her shoulders and calmly says,

“This is not our burden. This is our gift.”

And, whoa. Has that line ever hit me in the face!

I have been trying to remember and reflect on this line as I’ve faced my own miniature (or not so miniature) freak out sessions over the past few weeks.

To be in the situation where we need to find a new place to live because we have been blessed with a second child and need more space? To be in the situation where we need more space because we have been blessed so abundantly with ‘stuff’? To be in the position where we are able to purchase a home because of my husband’s hard work and motivation over the past eight years? To be in the position where we can buy a home that needs renovations because I have a husband who has the skill, ability and desire to make improvements?

To be in this position I am in, despite how stressful, unknown, unclear and scary it may be?

This is not my burden. This is my gift.