A Story of Self-Less Teen Sportsmanship

What would you do if you were running the last cross-country race of your high school career and that race was the state championship meet? Now I’m not a cross-country runner, but I imagine that I would be racing to not only win, but to do the best I had ever done. I recently ran across the story of Kaylee Montgomery, a high school senior who set out to beat her personal best in the Arkansas state championship cross-country race. Just forty yards from the finish line, Kaylee came up on a rival runner, who had collapsed from exhaustion. Kaylee stopped, helped Julia Worthington up, and supported her body as they moved together slowly to the finish line, while all the other runners passed. When interviewed, Kaylee said that she was encouraging Julia, praying that the Lord would give Julia strength to finish. In a world where winning is increasingly seen as everything, we applaud this kind of Christ-like service from a teen. Let’s encourage our kids to do the same.