Something has been on my heart for some time and with the start of school within smelling distance, I thought I'd share my thoughts. It has to do with parents and their spiritual involvement in the lives of their children.
What if we could get mom and dad as passionate about Junior's spiritual growth as they seem to be about the five sports he plays?
Let me explain. I've seen parents roll out of the house at 7am to catch Junior's early soccer game. I've seen dad work concessions all day, to raise money for athletic boosters. I've seen mom peddle ten cases of candy bars at work so Sally can be in the top seller in her class. I've seen dad volunteer to coach his son's t-ball team because he knows how valuable a quality coach can be to his son's shot at the big leagues. I've seen parents re-arrange their entire weekend to accommodate a tournament. Bottom line...I've seen parents go anywhere and do anything to see their children succeed in their chosen "extracurricular".
My thought is this. What if we could channel that willingness to make an investment, that commitment level, that passion, that excitement for the spiritual development of our children?
Think about this for a moment. Why does soccer (insert your favorite extracurricular here) trump church every time? When was the last time you heard about a kid missing a soccer game because he had made a commitment to youth group? When was the last time you heard dad tell the coach that his son wouldn't be practicing on Wednesdays because his plan is to be in a small group. I'm not saying that an occasional miss is evil but for the love of God, why does basketball trump church every time?
Just something to think about.
3 comments:
yes, yes and yes!
My kids are 3 and 1 and I hope I can keep the commitment I've made to God to raise them in His ways. I know the pressure will be tough, especially where we live.
I'm linking this over at ccjasper.com 's blog.
Right On Chad!
I wish kids showed more commitment to youth activities and partcipated with a smile on. And I wish parents were willing to get involved too. I'm so glad my parents "grew me up in church" We had fun, we learned, we stayed involved!
The pressure is great today with school activites. I wish parents would ban together to stop Sunday practices in school sports. It's just not necessary. We need to raise tomorrows leaders.
Keep up the GOOD work!
--Sheila
p.s... yes I goof, but I hope our boys really know God is there no matter what, and being a part of an active group of like minded believers is just the ticket to make it through the times ahead.
I'll take a little different slant on this. Instead of an either or, what about making the sports teams an outreach. I have been to tournaments that the opposing team was the name of a Scripture and they asked to pray with their opponents after the game.
So instead of having the Lakers for your team what about John 3:16 for your team name. Let the fans watching know about the love of Christ and then the kids pray with their opponents and for their opponents.
To me that is being the church rather than just attending church.
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