All run, but only one gets the prize – will it be your child?

When I was a child at school, I did not get pushed into sports by my parents. I did enjoy sports, but, somehow I was never really gifted at excelling in them. I couldn’t understand why the other girls were so talented and why my body was not designed to excel in these things.

It takes hard work to be skilled

I had a group of friends who were particularly good at sports, swimming and hockey to be exact. I would enjoy doing the try-outs with them, but, they would always get chosen to go on trips and to special tournaments where they would come back with victorious stories of how they scored nail-biting goals against other schools. I could only but sit on the side-line and be a spectator as they would represent our school. As they moved on to high school, the skill they had developed carried them through to take on other schools at higher levels. An opportunity would even be there for them to represent our country and get a medal of gold if they should wish to take hold of it with both hands.

As I got older and looked back on those days, I realised that while I was sleeping in the mornings before school, they were already awake training and developing their muscles for swimming. While I was playing around watching videos on the weekend, they were training and growing muscles and skill for hockey. I came to the realisation that when you mould your body into a swimming or hockey machine, that has the muscles in the right places and the skill developed in your brain to hit that ball in the right place – you will undoubtedly excel in the sport. I had every chance that they had, but the difference is that their parents decided in their hearts that they were going to create, train and mould a swimming or hockey machine. The children were willing candidates, of course, and they did genuinely enjoy the sports. I still wish that I had put more effort into training for those sports when I was young.

Physical training vs spiritual training

Why did my parents neglect to push me in these areas of sports? Well, they were busy running their businesses and trying to make ends meet. You see, I was a surprise last child in their old age and put unexpected pressure on them to get another child through life. They had to create resources to raise this little surprise – of which I am truly grateful. But there is something else that they did for me. While these talented girls were practicing sports on the weekend, I was being taken to Sunday school. While they were going to tournaments, I was watching my parents run their business and make godly decisions even if it hurt them. While their parents were focusing on creating in them a love for sport, my parents were creating in me a love for God and instilling prayer in my life “For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.” 1 Tim 4:8. I had a personal relationship with God from a young age and no better gift could my parents have given me than to show me where to go to save my soul for eternity. It is this relationship root that made me come back to God at the age of twenty-four when I strayed from Him for many years. Sports are great but the danger comes in when they overtake spiritual training.

All the runners run, but only one gets the prize

The bible speaks about our faith as a race “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.” 1 Cor 9:24-25. All these girls had a faith in Jesus, as we went to a Christian school, but, now they are sitting on the race track and I am trying to help them stand up and get running again to finish the race. Our household was not the most ‘sold out for Jesus’ household at all, but, even the foundation my siblings and I all received has made a huge difference in the lives of my family members and the growth in their faith decades later.

Helping your children to win the race

When you see your child, see a seed of faith that needs nurturing, see a soul that needs to win the race of faith and obtain that crown. Enter them into strict spiritual training from a young age and one day they may become strong enough to represent their heavenly country, the Kingdom of Heaven. Grow that little seed of faith into a young tree with deep roots.

• Teach them about apologetics so that those roots can grow deep and wide to keep them stable when they go out into the real world, university or college.
• Teach them to question and to research, “…Test all things; hold fast what is good…” 1 The 5:21, so that they know what they believe, why they believe it and are not plucked up out of the soil.
• Show them the other beliefs and all the pitfalls that they may come across.
• Help them to develop a strong personal relationship with their heavenly Father so their roots can grow deep and find water when the heat of the day comes because the heat will come.
• Give them a bible and show them how to navigate it.
• Instil in them a love for the victorious stories of King David, Gideon, Esther
• and ignite that spark in them to want to be used by God and to help His Kingdom grow.

You may be thinking that you yourself are unsure on things such as apologetics or how to navigate your bible and this is where the iron sharpens the iron. How are you running the race of faith – are you running so that you can grasp hold of that crown?