I write at the beginning of the season—baseball season. Baseball may be “America’s Pastime,” but youth baseball is no longer the summer afternoons in a vacant lot, playing in the backyard sort of event. It is another in an extensive list of all-pervasive youth sports.
Youth sports is a multi-billion-dollar industry in the U.S. A report from the Aspen Institute cites that the average American family spends about $1016 on one child’s primary sport, per season—that is one child’s primary sport, for one season.[1] A quick internet search will tell you why. Sports franchises for youth teams have become big business—forty billion dollars annually according to the same report.
Nearly every sport now has a year-round opportunity for children, complete with personal lessons, specialized instruction, and gear—oh, the gear. Children today have all the specialized gear of their idolized sports heroes. I talked to a friend recently about his son who was about to get his championship ring. Why? They won the city league championship… for 10-year-olds.
We must teach our children that there are things far superior to the glory of this world.
This is not a new problem. We have always been subject to the power of pride. The Roman philosopher Seneca saw it in first century Rome, “…we should allow him [a child involved in games] to be encouraged but not elated, for joy leads to exultation, exultation to over-conceit and a too high opinion of oneself.”[2] If we give a 10-year-old boy a massive ring celebrating his city league championship, how will he ever have a proper view of himself?
But, shouldn’t our children be active? Should they not compete? Yes, they should. God created humans with the ability to play. Play must in some way be a part of his image. This makes competition a powerful tool for character development, but it also makes it a terrible weapon when it is not subject to God’s authority. The arena of competition should be a gift that can help us mold the character of our children. Unfortunately, parents and coaches have lost sight of this good.
The sports arena has become the one place exempt from civil behavior. Media is replete with stories of parents fighting over little league games—grown adults fighting over an umpire’s call in a little league baseball game. How did we get here? We fear that if we do not give our children every opportunity to be the best athlete, we have kept them from a future of fame and fortune. We never once stop to ask if that is the ultimate good.
Are fame and wealth the greatest outcomes of sports? If so, nearly all of them will miss out. If not, they risk missing out on the one thing that really matters, the final commendation, “well done, my good and faithful servant.” I promise, those words are not based on goals scored or strikeouts.
The Shema and Sports
What should we do? Scripture may be silent on youth sports, but it speaks loudly to the faithful raising of children.
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.”
As followers of Yahweh, we must recognize that there is but one God. This is easily said, but do our actions belie our words? What is our relationship to sports and to our children? Do they get a sense that our belief in God has little to do with how we act when our favorite football team is playing? Do they see us reject God’s commands of respect and love when a call goes against them?
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.”
Our love for all things must stem from our love for the Lord. Loving him with all our might means loving secondary things like family, work, sports and even church with a love that leads us to worship God, and God alone. This may mean instilling the importance of weekly worship in your home church rather than traveling to a multi-million-dollar sports complex, worshiping the hope of an unlikely future.
“And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.”
We should keep the word of the Lord before our children. Train your children to know the Word more rigorously than you train them to succeed in sports. Praise them for their character more often than their performance. Stop asking, “how many points did you score” and start asking, “how did you serve the Lord.”
“You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”
Every moment of the day offers an opportunity to teach our children to walk in the wisdom of the Word. After a game, our first response should not be to deride the other team or to disparage the officials. It should be to take our children (and ourselves) under the instruction of the Word. What does it teach us about the nature of life and how to deal with disappointment? How may we praise the Lord for his blessings? How can we encourage others through the truth of his Gospel?
We must quiet our fears that our children will somehow miss out on the glory of this world. Or better, we must teach our children that there are things far superior to the glory of this world. We must restore our families with the wisdom of the Shema.
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