Community Post: Families and Sports

Last night I walked into the a Little League ballpark to watch a friend's son play in his first game. As I entered the gates, long-lost childhood memories of spending summer evenings at the local ballpark came rushing back. I was surprised that I had forgotten such fond memories, and I was excited that my girls were going to live some of those same experiences as we cheered our friend on.

My older daughter participated in her first team sport this last Fall, and I didn't realize how much I would appreciate how it built character and taught life lessons, in addition to teaching me about my daughter's personality and heart.

When I read that sports are a requirement in Kristine Leather’s family, I resonated with their thinking. From my sweet childhood memories to my daughter's recent experience, I have seen how positively sports can shape our family. Her post is here.

Like Sarah Wolfe's family, we had many conversations this fall when my daughter faced difficulties - whether with her sport, her attitude, or her teammates - and I loved Sarah's reminder to capitalize on those teachable moments (for me, too!) Check out her reflection on Spiritual Growth and Little League.

I had never really thought about the community that we built through sport, but when I read Angela Culpepper's article, I realized that we, too, had formed a lovely community of parents that we enjoyed seeing every Saturday morning. We also appreciated that our participatoin in sports put us in the middle of a diverse group of people, breaking us out of our tendencies to surround ourselves with people who look and think like us. Her post, Sports on Sunday, is interesting reading.

Neither my husband nor I are big sports fanatics, but this week was a great reminder of how participating in sports adds to the growth and development of our family. I think we'll be having more conversations in the near future about how sports will be a part of our family's rhythm.

I invite you to read how Laity Lodge Family Camp participated in the Sports for the God’s Glory.

Sports for the Glory of God

If God has created humanity with bodies that are “fearfully and wonderfully made,” we need to develop a Christian way of living that incorporates play and recreation, leisure and competition, sports and athletics. Faith in the Creator and Redeemer should lead us to identify the way sports and athletics are meant to be, discern when something is wrong with sports in our broken and sinful culture, and imagine ways to be instruments of redemption in this sphere. In this series, Sports for the Glory of God, we engage with stories of people who are working through these issues on a daily basis.

Image by Tim Miller. Used with permission. Sourced via Flickr.