A Cheeky Article on Travel Baseball

Tyler Mackenzie

I have 3 young children ages 7, 4 and 2. As a pastor of a church made up mostly of young families, I have found this to be a common wish of many parents. . But I also found that these same parents strongly felt they were doing a bad job. I don’t know how.”

i didn’t buy it

My observation is that parents show a high level of competence in shaping their children to do all sorts of things.My 7 year old boy loves baseball. (I’m not bragging, but we wrapped up the South Oldham Falls Coach Pitch Championship. Yes, he’s seven. Yes, we’re scoring. Yes, I’ve been through him in my glory days. Please don’t judge me.) Having gotten my feet wet with my local Little League, I was amazed at how enthusiastic Oldham County fathers were in teaching their boys to play baseball. it was done.

Now, if you ask them to be intentional about God, for a lot of people it’s all just a shrug and I don’t know. You may not know the Bible very well, or you may not have a youth service degree, but you know how to raise children. We’ve invested thousands of dollars in travel balls, private one-on-one lessons, and advanced equipment of all kinds. You’ve spent hundreds of hours playing catch in the yard, going to practice, and attending summer camp. Some parents build a batting cage in the backyard or hang a net in the garage. They watch a major league game together at night. They bought bedsheets for their children and pajamas decorated with balls, gloves and bats. They say he’s 7 years old, but he’s already all-in on his trip to Cooperstown. Don’t tell me you don’t know how to be intentional. Instead, imagine what would happen if we invested all of that in the mental formation of our children.

To make a quick confession, my son has a lot to do with this. He attended three Springball, All-Star, and summer baseball training camps. he loved it I like him more. At camp, it was awe-inspiring to see how many fathers took time off from work to line up in the fields and watch their sons practice in the 95-degree heat. His pride and ownership of his son’s baseball prowess was inspiring. No kidding, it’s an invested dad!

give priority to raising children

I’ve been a little cocky up until now, but there’s nothing wrong with baseball. A great teacher in life. When will we realize that our kids have a near 0% chance of playing Division 1 baseball in college (much less likely to drink coffee in the majors), but they stand before God 100% chance one day. Can they show him more than just good swing mechanics?

Same goes for basketball, music, theater, dance, robotics, gymnastics (just to name a few). Most of us keep our children busy with an array of activities that have nothing to do with church. I’ve seen it. They know how to deploy resources to ensure that children are disciplined, trained and formed.

I’m not telling anyone to stop playing baseball. The pitch of this article is to bring the same intent to your child’s faith. Here is what my young pastor tells you. A month he goes to church twice (whenever ball trips or trips to the lake are not competing) is not enough. A 15-minute Bible lesson and craft at Kids Church is not enough. Nothing but parental responsibility. Even if your child is already a teenager, it’s never too late to act enthusiastically and purposefully.

Raising children in Jesus name should be your first priority in life. Parents are at the forefront of the battle from home! We should sacrifice profit and personal ambitions. sleep should be sacrificed. We need to put our best time into this, plan our best, and contribute our best thoughts and ideas. We should bring all the wisdom and creativity that life has given us. We must bring all the hurt and lessons from Hard Knock school. It should be brave on the agenda. It should be celebrated with loud cheers and lots of cake.

means of measurement

If you asked me, “What do you want to do right in life?” I want to be able to say that I did. I want to be able to say, “When it comes to parenting, I did it right.” Not perfect, but correct. I put in the time. I spent money I took them to church. Their eternity was a priority. ”

No one has that kind of confidence. Many parents say, “I will never write a book about parenting!” Then we laugh and feign humility, but I always think. why not? Why should we give in to the reality that we are destined to do the wrong thing? That’s probably because we all know we can’t control our children. I want it to be a formula or recipe with guaranteed results. they are not.

Once you let go of the burden you have to control, end As a result of your child’s faith, you can start measuring your parent’s success means If the means are the only thing we can ultimately control, there is no reason why every Christian parent can’t say, “I did it right.” I gave it my all. I put in resources. I was an intentional parent. ”