Elizabeth just finished her 7th grade basketball season. Which was a milestone, because it is the first year beyond rec league.
Perhaps the biggest takeaway from this season was how much the coaches had a propensity to regard the girls who had travel ball experience, during their elementary schools years, as having a higher incoming talent level.
Basketball reasons aside, we will intentionally never be a travel ball family.
I have nothing against travel ball on the merits of seeking higher levels of competition. But what I do have is a conviction that our weekends shouldn’t be consumed with a sport that interferes with our church attendance.
As parents we all disciple our children whether we realize it or not. We could inadvertently disciple our children to think that God doesn’t necessarily need to be first in our lives. Or we could disciple our children that their sports become an idol. As I once heard a pastor talk on this subject, he said something to the effect of:
“When you disciple your children to believe that it’s OK to put something else above God, don’t be surprised when they’re teenagers or young adults and they’ve went astray.”
It wasn’t until Stephanie was pregnant with Elizabeth that I recall hearing this popular verse in Proverbs (22:6) for the first time:
Train up a child in the way he should go,
And when he is old he will not depart from it
That’s the responsibility we have as parents, to devote our children back to the Lord. To raise them to know the Lord, and to know the love, the value, & the call that the Lord Jesus Christ has already placed on their lives.