Bill Walsh

Bill Walsh died at his Woodside home Monday morning following a long battle with leukemia. He was 75.

Steve Young a former player of Walsh said, "He knew me well before I knew myself and knew what I could accomplish well before I knew that I could accomplish it,"

Bill Walsh, I believe, saw people the same way our heavenly Father sees people.

Many times we see our lives as a failure and we are constantly looking at the fumbles we make. Bill Walsh took over the S.F. 49ers in 1979 and they won two games (they lost 14 - focused on the positive there).

Walsh doubted his abilities to turn around such a miserable situation -- but earlier in 1979, the 49ers drafted quarterback Joe Montana from Notre Dame.

Walsh turned over the starting job to Montana in 1980, when the 49ers improved to 6-10 -- and improbably, San Francisco won its first championship in 1981, just two years after winning two games.

Jerry Rice, the NFL's all time reception leader, was drafted by Bill Walsh's 49ers...and he said "I came to San Francisco, and I found another father, Bill Walsh," Rice said. "He was always there for me, when I was dropping balls, doing everything, when the media were trying to crucify him, 'Why did you go draft this small college player out of Mississippi Valley State?' He hung in there with me."

Let me encourage you today to remember that no matter what life has throw at you there is a heavenly Father who will always hang in there with you.