My son, a clog in the making
Okay, Summer says blogs are meant for bragging, so I'm going to indulge myself a little.

When we lived in Virginia, my then 10-year-old son played on the church's soccer team. A certificate of appreciation was given to every team member, and just two trophies were given - one to the most valuable player, and the Big One, the Philippians 3:14 award, to the best all-around player who also exhibited the most Christlike character. Both years he played, Stephen got The Big One. The certificates are long gone, but the trophies still occupy the place of honor in his room.

Tonight was our homeschool group's basketball banquet. Stephen was on the junior high team and this is the first year he has played basketball. Again certificates and trophies were given: every kid got a trophy, and some of the kids also got certificates of achievement. Stephen got the "Mr. Hustle" award - he was the smallest on his team and worked really hard to learn the game, scoring 10 points during each of the last two games of the season.

After we got home, Stephen hung his award certificate in his room. Then he removed the plastic cup and basketball from the trophy to give to his younger siblings to play with, and kept the trophy's marble base for himself.

I'm sure he's planning to make something worthwhile out of it. :-D