For the Love of the Game

I’m in a pickle. Along with our sixth grade son.

He’s our baseball lover. A lefty, who my husband dreams will reign in his pitch because when he does zing it across the plate it’s gooooood. But for most of the past seven years, first base has been his mainstay. Five of those years, he has also been on the same team, with the same coaches and almost all the same boys.

At the end of last season though our team made the decision to disband. Some boys were done with baseball, others are playing year round and one can play school ball as a sixth grader. For the public school kids, baseball doesn’t start until eighth grade so we need a new team. But so far there is no new team to be found.

Well, there is one he can possibly try out for. But after reading the five page document about the team’s goals and hired professional who will run practices and the three tournaments a month through half of summer, I don’t think it is the team for us. Yet, the very realistic consequence of choosing not to go this route is our son not ever getting to play for the school team. Because. if every other kid who wants to play high school baseball is doing this, how could he compete?

But why does it have to be this way! Why do we have to treat our kids like mini-professionals when it comes to sports? What happened to free afternoons riding bikes and playing with the neighbors? And just enjoying the sport in season for the love of the game?

Why do they have to choose at such a young age to specialize in a sport and not just specialize, but make it their life. And not just their life, but that of the entire family it effects.

Now hear me, I am not condemning all tournaments and sports commitments, but I am asking us to consider why we have gone to such an extreme?  For some the goal is college athletics or beyond, but for relatively few that will transpire.  However, from the time our kids are little we set our eyes on doing whatever it takes to make them the best. By the amount of time and expense we devote and at the sacrifice of so much else, this functional sports’ god is teaching our kids something more than just perfecting whatever the sport.

What our kids are learning best is to find life in something other than Christ. Regardless of what we say we believe, that is what we are pushing them toward – life found in being the best and life found in baseball (or whatever the sport). No wonder they struggle with identity if this is what it is built on!

I wonder what would happen though if we made Sunday morning worship the priority so they learn what orienting their lives around the gospel looks like instead? What if we took a stand and said ‘no’ to gain back family time?  What if the weekend actually was relaxing and our kids weren’t completely exhausted every Monday and expected to then do whatever it takes to also excel in their academics?

That’s how it used to be.

For our sanity and spiritual health, do you not crave to go back to that?

There is obviously so much good and many life lessons learned from being on a team and working hard.  And so much joy in watching our kids compete in their sports, so I hope my boys will have the opportunity to do what they love in high school. What I want them to love most though are things from above. I want them to grow up into godly men who prioritize His word and His people above all, but it starts now – with us.

For the love of the game, may sports be just that – a game we love but not what rules us as if it’s the One true love.