Live Original (Sadie Robertson) by Sadie Robertson Read Free Book Online

as a final answer. He found out where the team was practicing and went to watch. God once again intervened in Papaw’s life when Papaw discovered that the coach of the team was a former coach of his. That coach immediatelyrequested that Papaw be assigned to the team. He even got to play against the Harlem Globetrotters!
    When Papaw did get to go to college, he wasn’t able to realize his dream of playing college basketball, even though he was accepted as a “walk-on” at Oklahoma State University under the famed coach Hank Iba. He already had a growing family and schoolwork to think about, so he chose to give up college basketball for his family. But he did get to play for the United States Marine Corps for six years, and he valued his assignment to that team so much.
    Papaw left a family legacy of basketball. I am now the fourth generation of basketball players in our family, and my coach is my uncle Jeremy Luther Shackelford, Papaw’s youngest son, who did get to play college basketball. Most important, Papaw left us with a strong sense of what makes life valuable—and that is family. When he was a child, he didn’t have the kind of family life that many dream about, but he made sure his children had that life. And his children passed that love on to their children, and now I am blessed to have the family I love surround me with constant support. It’s not unusual for me to have as many as twenty family members watching one of my games. I love looking up in the stands and seeing their smiling faces, knowing it all started with my papaw Shack, who didn’t take no for an answer when he had the dream of basketball in his heart. You may not have a big family like I have, but you can have a big dream, and if you never give up, you’ll be amazed at what God can do.
    THE MONOPOLY MAN
    If you are like me, you have probably played the game Monopoly. But do you know the story behind the game? Someone told it to me, and I want to pass it along to you.
    In 1929, America was in a very bad situation because the stock market had crashed and people hardly had any money. A man named Charles Darrow could not find a regular job, so he took every little odd job he could find to support his family. One day, he sat down and invented a game with play money. He made the game so people could pretend to buy and sell real estate—something most people could not even dream of during those days.
    He started the game by drawing on his kitchen tablecloth, then he improved it by using little pieces of material or scraps he found, then improved it again by building and painting its pieces. Family and friends soon came to his house to play the game, and it became very popular because it gave people without much money a chance to dream of being involved in high finance.
    Eventually, Darrow was able to sell his board game, starting at four dollars each. Then he tried to sell it to the Parker Brothers game company, who turned him down because they counted fifty-two things that were wrong with the game—fifty-two reasons they thought their customers would not want to play it. But Darrow did not give up. He went on to manufacture the game himself. Later, Parker Brothers had a new president who found out about the game and offered to manufacture it and give royalties to Charles Darrow. Those royalties made him the first game inventor to ever become a millionaire. 5

Live Original Challenge
1.  What’s the hardest thing you have ever done or the hardest day you have ever lived? How did you get through it?
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2.  Is there someone in your life whom you shouldn’t give up on? How can you continue to love that person?
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3.  What small steps have you started taking toward your passion or your dream? Are you determined to keep going and not give up, no matter what?
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4.  Why do you think it’s important to never give up?
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DON’T FORGET
Anybody can quit.
Only a real champion and a person of character