¶ Welcome to Starting Right
Good morning and welcome to Starting Right . I am Danny Mac and I'm going to be here every Monday to Friday to help you get a great start to your day . So grab your cup of coffee , sit back and relax for the next five minutes as I help you start your day by starting right .
In the world of college basketball in the United States , there is one coach's name that stands miles above the rest . That fellow is John Wooden . Now , if you've never heard of John Wooden , it's probably because you don't follow basketball , and that's quite all right . But this guy was amazing .
From the early 1960s through the mid-1970s , he coached the UCLA Bruins basketball team and during that 12-year period he won 10 national championships , including seven in a row . Nobody else has ever done that for more than four in a row . Also , during that time , they won 88 consecutive basketball games .
When he retired from basketball , his record was 664 wins to only 162 losses . That's over an 80% winning percentage . And what he was known for as his greatest strength was not basketball . He built up young men and taught them what it meant to be men , and he did this all from a perspective of being a very strong and devout follower of Jesus Christ .
He once said . I've always tried to make it clear that basketball is not the ultimate . It is of small importance in comparison to the total life we live . There is only one kind of life that truly wins , and that is the one that places faith in the hands of the Savior , jesus Christ .
Coach Wooden was most satisfied by the difference he made in the lives of his players . He taught them strong principles based upon the Word of God that helped them to create successful lives , not only on the basketball court but in life . Many of them went on to become lawyers and doctors , and ministers and teachers .
John Wooden had a personal seven-point creed that was given to him by his father , and this creed he passed on to his players for them to live by on a daily basis , and he held them accountable to it . The Creed included these seven things Be true to yourself . Make each day your masterpiece . Help others . Drink deeply from good books , especially the Bible .
Make friendship a fine art . Build a shelter against a rainy day . Pray for guidance and give thanks for your blessings every day . He also developed what he called his Pyramid of Success , which were biblical principles that were built upon each other to help create successful lives for his young men that he was teaching . At one point he wrote a devotional book .
It was called Coach Wooden's Pyramid of Success Building Blocks for a Better Life , and he made it very clear that each point that makes up his pyramid of success was based upon God's word . He said I believe in absolute truth and absolute sin , and the Bible is my standard for determining those absolutes . Coach Wooden was a very successful man .
His life was committed to Jesus Christ , but his ministry was unique . It wasn't one preaching sermons from a pulpit . It wasn't one going on to the mission field in another country . His mission field was to build young men and to help them understand the truth of God and godly principles that would allow them to become successful in life .
His favorite verse of scripture comes from 1 Corinthians 13 , what we call the love chapter , and John Wooden's favorite verse is the very last verse of that chapter , which says this so now , faith , hope and love abide these three , but the greatest of these is love . Coach Wooden was guided by the word of God and by the principle of love .
He learned what it really meant to love the people around him , to love the young men that he was influencing in life . He not only told them the way to go , he showed them the way to go by , how he lived , and that kind of person we need to see more and more of around us right now .
My challenge today , my friends , is that we become people of love like that , that we learn to care so much about people around us that we don't tell them what to do , we don't simply say this is what you need to do and this is what you don't need to do .
They know it's true , because they see it first in us , and then they can ask us why , and then we can give them the answer because of the love of God in my life . How well are we showing the love of God to the people around us , those that really need to see it ? In this time of strife and worry and division , they need to see love .
Let us show God's truth and make an impact where we are . Be blessed , my friends . Have a great day . We'll talk to you tomorrow . Have a great day . We'll talk to you tomorrow . Thank you for listening today and I invite you to join me Monday to Friday , right here on , starting Right with Danny Mac .