[Darris McNeely] So do you have trouble like I do and so many of us with focusing and not being distracted by the gadgets that we have like our cell phones, mine right here? You know, I was reading an article about the college championship football game that as I'm speaking here just took place this week where the University of Georgia beat the University of Alabama to become the number one college football team in the United States for the year 2022. And I was reading about the quarterback of the Georgia team that won. A young man named Stetson Bennett IV, quite a name, but he was a walk-on quarterback through the early years of his collegiate career, didn't have a position, up and down on the charts of his team, not having throughout his career the full confidence of his coach until this year. And through a number of circumstances, he then became the number one starting quarterback of the Georgia team and through some very, very good play even down to the last quarter of the championship game, played in an exceedingly well manner to bring home the championship for Georgia.

But what intrigued me was at some point during the football season, Stetson Bennett IV, in order to focus on the job of being the number one quarterback and getting his team to top, decided to put this away, and instead, he bought this. What is this? It's a flip phone, kind of prehistoric by today's standards with our nice, sleek Android and Apple phones that we have. He went to a flip phone just to cut down the distraction so that he could focus on his job of being the quarterback and it paid off. The team became number one. And I read that and I thought, "I'm gonna share that with my students to keep help them to know why it's important to keep your focus on the material in front of you in the moment and not be distracted by a cell phone, by a computer, by the internet, or by anything else. We're all like that, aren't we? We have to fight distractions.

There's a proverb in chapter four of Proverbs, beginning in verse 20 where it says, "My son, give attention to my words, incline your ears to my sayings. Do not let them depart from your eyes. Keep them in the midst of your heart for they are life to those who find them and health to all their flesh." Teaching, the sayings of God, the sayings of your family, your parents, your boss, what it is that we need to focus on, the important matters that all the distractions, the gadgets, the technology can divert us from?

We've just got to have a never-ending quest to keep that focus so that we are a success in the most important areas. Certainly, with God, His Word, His purpose for our lives, whatever else it might be that is important to us in our life. Don't let them depart from our eyes, keep our focus. "Keep them in the midst of your heart." It says here in the Proverbs. Get a flip phone mentality maybe, and do what it takes to get our mind focused on what is important so that we can be number one. And most importantly, number one when it comes to the ways and the will of God. Ponder that and think about that for a moment. That's BT Daily. Join us next time.