Jason offers great insights into why parents must not remain neutral when it comes to educating kids about God.

How Not to Teach Your Kids The Bible – John Wells

Though its easy to teach, the Bible is also easy to get wrong.

Do Christian Parents Flirt With The Idol of Sports – Todd Hill

Are we serving Jesus or the taskmaster of sports success.

How Grandparents Can Help Grands Connect to Church Life – Steve Parr

We need grandparents. Their involvement is vital to the church, their children, and the grandchildren.

Why Fuller House is Failing Christians – Peter Witkowski

Fuller House is not just a fun show. Its a society mirror. What does it show us?

October 1, 2015October 1, 2015 Peter Witkowski Parenting

Should Christians Play Sports: 3 Crucial Questions

My helmet shattered. Just moments before, life had looked very promising. The bases were loaded and the scoreboard had a big fat 0 in the out column. Being the cleanup hitter, I couldn’t wait to take my turn in the batter’s box. Full of enthusiasm, I cranked the first hittable pitch I saw as high as humanly possible. But unfortunately for me, the outfield fence was located several feet behind second base. To make matters worse, all three runners ran for some inexplicable reason. A catch and two glove pops later, the inning was over. Tripple play. I found myself walking back to the dugout in a disgusted rage.

I mention the story because sports have become a huge stumbling block to many parents and their kids. Now, sports are not bad. Competition is not evil. We don’t need to take down the scoreboards and force everyone into our “Non Competitive Soccer League” where everyone is a winner! Yay us! (And oh don’t forget everyone is also a losers. Yay, logic!) And, moving on.

There is no virtue in skipping sports. Neither is there virtue in playing sports. For Christians the value of sports rises and falls with our attitudes. Specifically, do we use sports to praise God or to praise ourselves? In I Corinthians 10:13 Paul says it this way.

So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

The thing in question is not the activity but the player’s heart. Is God gloried on the football field or is Jim playing so that people will praise him? Does he play so people see Jesus or so that Sally’s mom will tell his mom that everyone thinks him a stud?

In my case, the answer was often, “I play for me.” I smashed my helmet all those years ago because I wanted sports to be my platform for worship. I wanted people to leave every game thinking I was the hero, the stud, the “it” guy. And so the bats flew, fights erupted, and a coach’s lectures was never far away. When I failed on the field and failed to collect my weekly dose of worship, I got mad. By God’s grace I eventually stepped away from baseball for a time during college, realizing that my self-worship needed to stop. Below I want to offer three test for determining how we are playing sports. Are sports a platform for God or for us? Here we go.

How Do You Treat Others?

Sports (even tennis and golf) require you to interact with other people. Do we use sports to talk about Christ, to encourage others (a kind word to an opponent or a ref should very much be in the Blog Kids Sports Christian’s vocabulary) and to celebrate their success? “How cool is it that Sally got the start today. Sure, I hoped to play, but I’m so excited for her; she’s going to do great!” Do you encourage the kid who fumbled the game away, do you support the coach who has a losing team?

Or do you always whine when you don’t get to start? “Um…coach don’t you realize how good I am. Why don’t you make Joe second string?” Do we tell our parents how evil our teammates are because they don’t talk about us enough or play us enough, or chant for us enough? Do we get mad and shout at players who drop the ball, miss the kick, or fail to land the jump?

The Bible tells us to “Count others as more significant than yourselves.” (Phil 2:3). Do we? Or do we count ourselves as being more significant than everyone else and chew out the second baseman that dropped fly ball?

What Happens Win You Lose?

Mom, Dad, kids, Grand dad, we are going to lose. We will strike out. We will fumble the ball on the last play, we will miss the gaming winning shot, and we will fall off the balance beam. We will lose. When we do, what happens? Do we smash our helmets? Are we mad because no one will praise us? Has our life ended, because we’ve been reminded that we are actually kind of ordinary (or maybe just plain bad at sports)? Do we think about cheating to make sure we never have to suffer another horrific loss and the taunts of our neighbors?

Or, are we content? Can we go celebrate with the other team? Can we come home and be happy because we know that Jesus is Lord and that no game can ruin our faith? What happens when we Blog Kids sports 2 lose?

In one of the most quoted sports’ verses of all times, Philippians 4:13, we read, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Most people assume this verse says that God is going to take the 3^rd string QB and make him the starter who goes on to excel at college before wining a super bowl ring. Most think, Paul is saying that strikeout sally will become home run sally one day and star on the USA softball team. But while the context of the verse does talk about the good days, the passage also mentions being “brought low” (4:12). Paul is saying that we can never play and be joyful. We can never win a game and be content. We can be the strikeout kid and have joy because we have Jesus! We can do all things, including losing for Jesus! Do you?

What Happens Win You Win?

Winning isn’t everything. But, it sure is nice to win. And there is nothing wrong with competing well for a chance at victory. But how do we respond when we win? Do we boast in God for giving us the talent? Do we praise our coaches and teammates for their help and support?

Or do we talk about our hit, our catch, our corner shot? Is our celebration all me, me, and I? Or are our comments about Jesus?

Friends, we are to boast. But our boasts are always to be in Jesus (Jeremiah 9:23-24)! Every success we have is a gift from God. Why are people great and then inexplicably horrible? Why do dunces become MVPs and MVPs become dunces so quickly? They answer is God. He gives every skill to you. He places you in the winning teams. We do nothing alone.

Do you belief this? Who do we boast about when we win?

What Should We Do?

Sports don’t have to pull us or our kids away from Christ. God designed athletics to be good. And, my hope is that all Christians will play sports for the glory of God.

But being sinners, we are prone to mess up God’s design. I can bear witness to this fact over and over again. If we continually mistreat overs, whine when we lose, and brag when we win, it’s time to step away from sports. It’s time to refocus our lives on Christ.

”And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.” – Mathew 5:30

February 24, 2015February 25, 2015 Peter Witkowski Discipleship

Why Big Kids Cry

I LOVED winning baseball games as a kid. Nothing seemed more glorious to my childhood psyche than that $9.50 first place trophy. Yes, my aspirations were pitifully small (this may explain why I had to repeat second grade) but my desires were drenched with passion. I practiced every chance I got; I played hurt at times; and, I publicly challenged my coaches bad decisions. I was all in for the trophy. Finally at the mature age of 11, I snagged I did snag me a championship trophy. Oh the Joy! Sadly, it was short lived. The following year, my team topped out at second. I ended my little league career crying in my dad’s car too angry to speak.

Why The Tears

I mention my own experiences with rec league baseball because they point to an important truth. Nothing will satisfy us other than Jesus. If our kids are living for baseball, good grades, or musical perfection, they will not be satisfied. Their little emotions, self-esteem, and joy will fluctuate drastically with each success or failure. Often kids who lose it when they lose, fail, or make a mistake are not just sensitive. Most are idol worshipers whose idol just got exploded by dose of reality. Because their hope for fulfillment was based on their efforts, they cry.

The Solution For Failure

Despite what Nike commercials say, the solution is not to practice harder or to start earlier. Getting more trophies, more money, and more fame will not make our kids more fulfilled. As Solomon concluded, “I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 2:11). Kids who strive for more and more worldly success will only find more and more emptiness.As David Platt writes,

The desire for more is a trap. As we indulge this desire, it destroys our soul bit by bit. And it may destroy us forever – p. 40.

The solution is to make Christ everything. “Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you” (John 6:27). We should remind our kids that their worth, hope, and joy are ultimately found in Christ! Yes, God has given us sports, knowledge, and the arts. But, we are to use them for his glory and not for our satisfaction. When we try to find satisfaction in stuff, we get only disappointment because we lose sight of God. Jesus said it this way:

Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. – John 6:53b-57

Nothing other than Jesus will save us. And nothing other than Jesus will make us happy in this life. As John Piper said,

The deepest and most enduring happiness is found only in God. Not from God, but in God – p.23.

As we gear up for a spring full of activities, let’s encourage our kids to feed on Jesus! Below our three tips for making this happen:

Three Tips For Heavenly Success

Model our dependence for Christ. We need to pray and be in the word regularly. We need to make service to others and the worship of God our highest priorities. We need to fight the temptation to find our satisfaction in our kids’ success. And, we need to depend on prayer and scripture when making decisions. In short, we need to find our joy by obeying God’s commands!
Discipline sin. When we see our kids throw tantrums or snap at a coach, we handout suspensions. We end practices for our kids and make them take time off. We help them see that obedience to Christ is a way bigger deal than success. True, our kids may suffer at little on the field or in the classroom. But honestly, this is ok. As Jesus says,

For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? – Mark 8:36

My parents disciplined me often for my on field exploits. And because of their faithfulness and because of the Holy Spirit, I came to see that real life was not found on the Baseball diamond.
Ask God to save. Ultimately, only those who the father calls will believe. As the saying goes, “you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink (even if everyone closes their eyes and bows their head and mutters something).” As parents, we can and should expose our kids to the beauty of Christ, but kids won’t embrace Jesus on their own. The Holy Spirit must open their eyes. Jesus says, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day” John 6:44). Pray for God to work.

Works Cited

Piper, J. (2003). Desiring God: Meditations of A Christian Hedonist. Sisters: Multnomah Publishers.

Platt, D. (2015). Counter Culture: a compassionate call to counter culture in a world of poverty, same-sex marriage, racism, sex slavery, immigration, persecution, abortion, orphans, and pornography. Carol Streem: Tyndale House.