1 Peter 2:8 NIV

A stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall They stumble because they disobey the message ...

God gives each one of us stones. Stones are the situations and decisions we run into during our lives. God takes great joy in creating. He gives us a stone to create with. There must be celebrating in heaven when we are given a stone and we use it to create. And also what sadness there must be when we stumble over a stone. Instead of using this situation to build up, we let it tear us down. What stones have you encountered this last week? Did you use them to build or to tear down?

This brings hockey to mind. (OK maybe it just works in my head. Keep reading and it will make sense.) While we are here on Earth we are not going to be perfect. We are going to stumble. I have always struggled with this. I want to do what is right all the time. Every time I find a stone I want to use it to build. It is easy for me to start thinking about why I work so hard to do the right thing if I am going to fail at some point. It is much easier to follow the world. This is where hockey comes in. A goalie's job is to keep the puck out of the net. The goalie is human just like me and is not perfect. Goalie's track their save percentage. This is the number of times they stopped the puck from going in the net. For this example is would be how many of the stones you encountered did you use to build. Dominik Hasek, the goalie for the Detroit Red Wings, has a save % of .908. This means over 90% of the shots did not go into the net. If this was my stone %, I would have used 90% of the stones I have encountered for the right purpose. I haven't been keeping track, but I don't think my stone % is anywhere near that high. It helps me keep on track when I do stumble over a stone. My goal is not to be perfect, but to have my save % increasing.