Following Christ is a daily thing, not just a one-time thing
Sometimes trust takes time. We all love to be in control, but when you start to give some of that up, it's freeing. Start with some of the little things. Give those things up to the Lord. Ultimately the most important decision you can make is giving your life over to Christ and trusting Him with it. That's an amazing thing.
One of my favorite scriptures is Proverbs 3:5-6: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and don't lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your path.” That's a perfect example of trust. Sometimes you can trust and hope that everything is going to be rosy and God doesn't promise that. He promises that He's got our backs and He's prepared a place for us.
We know we're going to go through ups and downs and we've all experienced that, but it's about surrendering some of that control, which we all find so hard to do, but it's really freeing when you can do that.
Hopefully I can be a good light in the hockey world and promote faith as something that's really real.
We can doubt the Lord when we go through tough times, but you know that He's always got your best interest at heart.
You're always going to face a little bit of criticism from time to time.
I think we've bounced back and really been resilient. Even after a bad period, we take over and we seem like we're on a mission. That comes with leadership and experience and a lot of things. A lot of it is mental toughness and resiliency in the situation you're at, just trusting in your teammates.
I consider myself a pretty hardworking guy and I like to play hard, play physical and play well defensively too.
I always say that if she treats her kids half as good as she treats the dogs, they'll be in great shape.
Both of my parents were raised in Christian homes, which was great. They instilled in us that God came first and they showed us what it was like to have a relationship with Christ. I accepted Christ at a young age, at the age of six years old, and just tried to play hockey and balance that.
Outside of our relationship with the Lord, marriage is right next to it. It's an important relationship and you hear that analogy all the time. There's no better one than that for sure.
I was probably about 22 years old when I recommitted myself to get off the fence and go all in and get serious about my faith. That's really when I experienced God's love and His forgiveness and His true grace.
I had some struggles later in my teenage years. I moved away from home and struggled a little bit being on my home and finding out who I was and trying to mix that with my faith and make it real. I learned a lot of lessons and made some mistakes along the way.
If you're truly living the way Jesus lived, then you're going to get those people that disagree. But you're also going to get those people who, if you're loving them the right way and you're being a good teammate, are going to like you too.
