Everyone's a Winner?

I am sure that you have heard people say: "Everyone's a winner!", or "Nobody is a loser". You have probably also seen competitions where everyone gets an award. (like the car show trophies to the right) What is this all about? Oh, little Johnny might grow up to be a horrible person because he lost a foot race and didn't get a prize?! No, we don't want to damage a child's delicate self-esteem. Wow, really? I mean, sure, we should teach good sportsmanship, but I really do not like this "everyone's a winner" mentality.

Children need to know that there are winners and losers in life. That's just a fact. Life is not a duckpond at the carnival. At some point we need to realize that we have to strive to be the best in order to be recognized for it.

So why is this such a big deal. Think about it. What's to say that when we teach all of our children that they are all the same and there are no losers, and they apply that to their spiritual lives? Will they assume that there are no losers in eternity? After all, nobody is going to hell, because we're all winners, right?

Am I going out on a limb to contrast winner versus losers to sinner versus the forgiven? I man much smarter than I am once told me that in order to properly consider an idea, you must take it all the way to it's end result or conclusion. If everyone is a winner, then nobody is a loser. Likewise, if everyone is a winner, than we can't all be sinners.

Let me know if I am just way off base or if this makes sense to you...