When I was growing up, I had an old neighbor, a doctor named Gibbs．When Dr．Gibbs wasn't saving lives, he was 1 trees．His house sat on ten acres(英亩), and his life's goal was to make it a 2 ．
The good doctor had some interesting 3 concerning planting trees．He never 4 his new trees．Once I asked why．“Watering plants will 5 them．” He said, “If you water them, each younger generation will grow 6 ．So you have to make things 7 for them．”
He talked about how watering trees 8 shallow roots, and how trees that weren't watered had to grow 9 roots in search of water．He'd planted an oak and, 10 watering it every morning, he'd 11 it with a rolled-up newspaper．I asked him why he did that, and he said it was to get the tree's 12 ．
Dr．Gibbs died a couple of years after I left home．Every now and again, I returned and walked by his 13 and looked at the trees that I'd watched him plant some twenty-five years ago．They're incredibly 14 now．
Every night before I go to bed, I check on my two 15 ．I stand over them and pray for them． 16 I pray that their lives will be easy．But lately I've been thinking that it's time to change my 17 ．
I know my children are going to encounter hardship．Life is tough, whether we want it to be or not．Too many times we pray for 18 , but that's a prayer seldom met．What we need to do is pray for 19 that reach deep into the earth 20 they won't be swept apart when the rains fall and the winds blow．
In my third year as a high school athletics coach, I gave a speech telling students and parents about the benefits of football．I gave the same 1 each year, aimin g at recruiting(招收)new team members．I talked about 2 football wasn't just for 3 athletes and how everyone could 4 from it．This year, a 5 looking couple approached me after my speech．They said their son really wanted to play football．They had tried to 6 him out of it, but he had his heart 7 on joining the team．
When they told me his name, my heart sank．Michael was five feet and ten inches tall and weighed about 108 pounds．He was a 8 boy, the constant target of other kids' jokes, and as far as I knew he had never 9 sports．I knew he would never 10 it through football practice, let 11 as a player．But we told them we could give it a try．
On the opening day of practice, Michael was the first player on the field, we did 30 minutes of warming-up 12 starting a one-mile jog around the track．I 13 my eye on Michael．At 50 yards he fell, and I helped him to his feet．“Michael,”I said,“Why don't you just 14 the mile?”He said in tears that he wanted to run with the others, so I let him go on． 15 he fell, but each time 16 himself up．
The same thing happened every day for weeks, and Michael gained strength both 17 and physically．By the last week of practice, Michael could run the mile without falling, we had 18 only one game that season, 19 the team cheered louder for Michael's run than the victory they had, Afterward, Michael approached me, and I told him how 20 I was of him．
