Benjamin Watson
I felt unworthy, and it's amazing how God kind of showed me that that's how we act as humans, and that's sometimes how we act in our Christian life.Collection: Amazing
In the public, it seems to be painted that when minorities get pregnant, they need to get abortions, especially when it comes to teen pregnancy. It's like, when black girls are pregnant, it's like a statistic, but when white girls get pregnant, they get a TV show.Collection: Teen
Goals give you a mark to shoot for and keep you motivated when you face adversity.
One of the biggest things we have to be able to do is to handle conflict and handle it correctly. We're able to look at our biases, look at our frustration, look at our sin in this area, our pride and our selfishness. It allows us to move forward.
You grow up a certain way, and you make decisions within your family, but then you go to college, and the decisions become harder. You are away from home, from the influence of your parents, dealing with peer pressure. There's a lot of stuff that goes on in college.
Sin is the reason we are racist, prejudiced, and lie to cover for our own.
I've heard my father say that the man is to be the priest, the provider, and the protector of his family. He's the priest because he is the spiritual leader, monitoring and growing the spiritual temperature of his family.
The only way to really cure what's on the inside is understanding that Jesus Christ died for our sins.
Sometimes, we feel like we don't want to offend people, but there are times that we need to express ourselves without fear that somebody is going to shut us down simply because we have differing opinions. That's how we grow.
I have been pulled over, and I have actually worried, 'Is something going to happen to me even though I am a law abiding citizen?' That is a real fear and is something that we have to come to grips with.
I respect the police officers, but something you learn as a young black man in this country is that... life is a little bit different for you even though, on the surface, it seems to be the same.
The police officer's job is to respect the citizens that they are in control of.
I sometimes think they should have said 'Black Lives Matter Too,' because that is really what is being said. The outcry is that historically and presently, the feeling is that black lives don't matter as much as white lives because we don't see the same type of things happening to them.
Sometimes listening is of greater value than speaking.
Before competition, as I stand in shoulder pads and cleats, my helmet in my left hand, adrenaline flowing and my heart raging under my right, I never forget the ills of America, but for a moment I envision its potential, remember its prosperity, and give thanks to God for the land He has placed me in and the people I love who live in it.
Conflict, when handled correctly, strengthens.
Conflict, when mismanaged, destroys.
People are hurting and looking for answers. The Gospel gives us hope.
The cure for the Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin, Tamir Rice and Eric Garner tragedies is not education or exposure. It's the gospel.
Sin is the reason we rebel against authority.
Sin is the reason we abuse our authority.
We all have the same problem as human beings. And it's something that we are born with, and we just see it manifest in different ways. And in this situation, it's racial. It's brutality. It's people breaking the law. It's the smoke, but the underlying fire is something that we all have to deal with, and that's our sin.
I think God does a lot of things in different ways.
When someone mistreats you, the correct reaction is not to go out and do something to destroy somebody else's property.
I can identify many different experiences that I've had over the course of my life and things that I've witnessed where it seemed that black men, specifically me or someone else may have got the, you know, different treatment than somebody else would in that same situation.
For everybody, I think that we all, when we look at this situation of race, we need a change of heart, and I said it before. I believe the heart change comes from repenting of your racism, repenting of your bias, repenting of your prejudice and understanding that, you know what, God sees us all the same.
We need to get our hearts straight. And after we get the hearts straight, we can treat each other straight.
We need to look at truth. We need to look at justice, and we need to look at righteousness. And let that be our guide going forward.
What doesn't allow us to move forward because when we simply - and I've seen it on social media; it really, really upsets me - is to get in our corners and call names and turn our back to each other.
The only one who can change the heart of man is the Lord. And that will make us want to make things fair for other people.
There shouldn't be any looting or anything like that. But we're seeing a lot of frustration, and nobody knows the answer. All of us are saying we need an answer, and what I'm saying is we need, all of us, a heart change so, as America, we can move forward.
There's no reason ever to steal because you're upset.
I would say that one of the hardest things for an athlete, and really anybody of any profession, is that we create our identity in what we do.
It's been a constant struggle with my athletic career to identify myself as a child of God and understand that His love is unconditional for us; it's not conditional like fans, or coaches, or even myself.
Whatever you do, do it wholeheartedly for the Lord and not for man, because our true identity is in Him.
The thing that happened in Ferguson touched many of us in a specific way.
What I do is play football. What I do doesn't change who I am and who God sees me as.
We are God's children. We are Christians first, and then what we do flows from that.
Make sure you know your identity is in Christ, so that when you get laid off from your job, or when you get a raise from your job, or when things don't go right, you're not up and down, up and down.
We all have faults.
We all doubt sometimes, and that's okay, but He's always there. He's always faithful even when we're not.
I think, as athletes, we've been given a platform, and we can use it in a lot of different ways. We can use it for negative. We can use it for positive. We can be indifferent. But if you've been given a platform, I think God is pleased when you share... His truth in love.
In the same way that I cannot be perfect and need grace for my mistakes, I also need to give my kids grace. I am constantly learning to be patient with them, understanding that they won't do everything right all the time, while still holding them to a high standard, as their heavenly father does.
Our loyalty is not to our grandparents, the traditions, our volleyball team, our friends; as believers, our loyalty is to Scripture.
All I'm saying is, is God the god who we look to for comfort during tragedies? Is he the god who can control all those things, or is he the god that we don't even trust with our daily lives... As long as there's prayer and exams, as long as there's games, there will be prayers.
I don't approve of many of the attacks of Black Lives Matter. I don't.
There comes a place where you need to respect. When people are speaking, you don't comment.
There are certain things you don't say that's disrespectful. They detract from the point you're trying to make.
Most of the guys in the NFL would sit here and tell you we don't condone the abuse of a child, any sort of abuse of a woman, breaking rules, failing drug tests, or doing any of those things. We hold ourselves to a very high standard.
You've got a league with a couple thousand players or so depending on the time of year. Then you have 10 or more very high profile stories that are terrible stories and things that have happened.