"The Head Punches Of A Friend Can Be Trusted..."

Last week, I had the privilege of training with John B., who is a friend of mine who has an extensive background in competitive kickboxing and mixed martial arts. We were working on a combination where I would throw a left hook to his head followed by a right leg kick. As we were practicing the combination, John pointed out that I was continually dropping my right hand as I threw the leg kick, leaving my head very exposed. I asked him to go ahead and pop me everytime I dropped my right hand...and he did. It only took a few times of him landing a clean left hook to my head that I started learning to get my right hand up and protect my head. Fortunately, he wasn't hitting me full-on or he very well may have knocked me out (even with head gear on) but he was hitting me hard enough for me to know that I had been hit and hard enough for me not to want to be hit anymore.

As I thought about our training, a scripture passage in Proverbs that says, "The wounds from a friend can be trusted, but an enemy multiplies kisses" kept running through my mind. I greatly appreciated the fact that my buddy was letting me have it because I knew that he was actually looking out for me. From his experience, he knew how important it was to make me protect myself so that when I faced an opponent who actually wanted to knock my head off, I'd be ready.

I'm pretty sure that as men, we need to surround ourselves with guys like my friend John. Guys who are willing to 'hook' us in the head with statements like "hey man, I see you spending a lot of time with that lady and she's not your wife...what's up with that?" or "dude, you're out playing golf or hanging with your buddies almost every weekend and when you are home, you're buried in the t.v. or your computer...if you keep it up your kids are going to be grown up and gone and you'll have nothing but regret." These hooks might hurt initially but in the long run, they'll force us to get our guard up so that we don't get knocked out.