There were a couple of brothers that lived down the street from where my family lived. We went to the same church, same Boy Scout troop, were roughly the same age as my brother and me and their Dad worked for the same company our Dad did. We hung out together a lot.
When the older brother was in 8th grade he set the middle school record for situps at 1,100 or 1,200 during his P.E. class which lasted roughly an hour. The situps were done while someone held your feet solid to the ground and as you did the situp your knees were bent and your hands held together behind your head. As you came up you touched your knees with your elbows. When you went back down you had to have your back and shoulders flat on the gym floor.
The record holders little brother was in 7th grade that year and little brother decided when school started in the fall he was going to break his big brothers situp record. Recently, I asked little brother how he prepared for the competition that fall.
He began doing situps as soon as summer started. Before he went to bed each evening he did 20 situps. He continued to raise the number each week until he was doing 200 each and every night before he went to bed.
I asked him if he did pushups during this time. He said he did pushups in the same way with each evening doing so many and increasing the number each week. The most he did was 50 before bed each evening.
When school started he felt ready to claim the situp record. During the competition he felt great and never was hurting. He did 1,550 situps and wanted to continue, but the P.E. teacher made him quit, because had to go to the next class.
There is always competition between brothers of the same family. The Bible tells the story of Cain and Abel, Jacob and Esau, Joseph and his brothers, the prodigal son and his brother. Those stories tell a difficult and hard lesson to learn. May you have competition with your brother, but may your bond to your brother be strong.
1 John 4:20 If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar, for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.