My husband has been an Offensive Line Coach for 11 years and was an Offensive Lineman all through High School and College. The other day he said something that had me thinking about life going into the season.
As he was working through the new offense out loud, he asked me, “What’s a Lineman’s most important job?” Well; what kind of wife would I be if I didn’t know that answer! “Mind Your Gap!”
I was so proud of myself. Then he said something that hit my whole life right on point- “With everything going on around him, and with so much to protect behind him, all he has to do to be successful is to mind his gap. He has so many threats and challenges around him, but all he has to worry about at that moment is his gap. Step into it and let the QB have time to do his job. The success of the whole team depends on him standing in that gap.”
Isn’t that us as the Coach’s Wife?
When we're juggling the kids, our job, the house, everyone's sports, and LIFE swirling around us and we wonder how we can do it all. It’s our job, to stand in the gap and hold life at bay for him.
We are a team, he and I, but in this season of life, I have to step into the gap and do all the behinds the scenes work, so he can shine. It seems unfair; mow the grass, change the tire, bathe the kids, be the tough parent and do it on my own.
Most of the time I go through the day without even telling him what happened while standing in the gap. Because then he’d feel guilty if he knew all I was juggling on my own.
Ladies, we are the keepers of everything, the doers of all the things, and the minders of the gap. We step into that gap without hesitation so that he can do that thing that makes him whole, that thing he loves so much. We should be proud of that.
When it all seems to be too much as your season starts to steamroll right over you, take some advice from a lineman. Take a breath, plant your feet, let everything around you go, and simply mind your gap.
Maybe at that moment, it’s the toddler meltdown from missing Daddy or the dinner that isn’t ready at 8 pm when you are walking in the door. Whatever the stressor pause and say it with me one thing at a time….
Just Mind That Gap! It’s my new mantra.