This past Sunday my family did something that we never do. We allowed our thirteen year old to participate in a softball tournament that carried over into Sunday play. Had they won all their games on Saturday, they would not have played on Sunday until 1:30pm, that would be well after our church service was over.
This is possibly her last year to play and this girl loves to play… and she loves being a part of a team. As a matter of fact several years ago, she had gotten in trouble for something. I really do not remember what it was, but the punishment was given in option one and option two. One of those options was being grounded for the weekend which would include no softball. She immediately chose the other option, not because it was lesser punishment for her, but because she already knew that some of the other girls were going to be gone that weekend and if she didn’t play the team would have to forfeit the game. She was thinking of her team, not just herself.
My husband and I have purposefully attempted to instill within our girls a sense of responsibility and the importance of keeping your word and your commitments. She made a commitment to this team, to the people on this team, not to softball. She made a commitment to these other girls and to the coaches that for this season she would do her best for them and they could count on her to give them her best efforts.
She would use this season as an opportunity to display what it looks like to do all things as unto the Lord… even play softball.
Our two youngest daughters (Shelby and Rebekah) have spent the last several years of their life at church almost daily and until 9pm – 10pm on Sunday and Wednesday nights. Shelby has served every Sunday morning in the nursery for probably at least the last six months because of adults who did not find their commitment to this extended care team important enough to show up or adjust their schedule around it. So Shelby’s commitment and dedication to the church was not in question for us, nor was her commitment to the Lord and learning and growing in His Word.
See we’re the weird parents that teach our kids the Word of God at home. We begin the morning with an in-depth precept upon precept Bible study and end the night with a bedtime devo. We listen to Christ exalting music in the car and at home. We also homeschool, so even their studies of math, science, grammer, ext are centered around Christ and growing in the knowledge of the Lord.
So missing a Sunday to play in a tournament in no way dishonored their God. He didn’t take the back seat. His Word and the truths that they have learned from Him carried right onto the field. He was right there with her and the rest of our family.
If God comes first, He comes first everywhere. I have seen God take the backseat inside the church doors as much as outside them. If just attending church and sitting half asleep on a pew every Sunday is someone’s definition of putting God first, they need to look back through the Book. If God is first He is first everywhere and at all times.
Children should be taught the Word of God daily in their home. Children should be learning the Word of God from their parents in the home and parents shouldn’t just be depending on the preacher or the Sunday school teacher to do it.
Children also need to see the Book lived out.
My daughters got to see the Spirit of God at work this past Sunday… even at a Sunday softball tournament. God actually gave me the opportunity to do something that I haven’t had the opportunity to do for a very long time… to hear Him and experience once again the unction of His Holy Spirit. Oh how I have missed that sinking feeling of churning within my gut.
Life has been so “busy” the last few years that any time for a “distraction” wasn’t possible. I had to be here, and here, and here, and have this and that ready, and make sure so and so was taken care of… the freedom to be freely moved was non-existent. My brain was too cluttered and my heart was hurting.
On the way to the ball fields we listened to a pastor preach on the book of Esther and he shared about God’s purpose and God’s ability to use all people and all things to accomplish His purpose. He also shared about how the only people who were in a hurry in the book of Esther were the messengers. The messengers that first went out saying, “You’re gonna die!” as they carried Haman’s decree to the Jews of the land and then the messengers that went out saying “You don’t have to die!” as they carried out Esther and Mordecai’s decree to the Jews of the land.
As I listened I said a quick silent prayer in my heart for the Lord to allow me to be a messenger of His gospel and His Word… Because of Christ we don’t have to die.
We arrived at the fields and made our way up after that atrocious $7 gate fee and found some of our fellow waiting parents. Then after a conversation on the bleachers with several of the other mom’s on the team, as we waited for our turn to get the fence front row, about how weird it felt not being at church… and how even our kids were experiencing the “weirdness” of it… (this was not a normal regular occurrence for any of us) it was our turn to take the field and set our cheering chairs up.
Now on each of our girls jersey’s there is an orange ribbon…
These ribbons are in honor of a young boy in Priceville who goes to school and to church with some these girls and he is fighting leukemia.
His name is Braxton… the girls are trying to spell out Brax with their bodies here after they won the County Championship.
Now as the girls took the field this past Sunday one of the women on the opposing team asked who the ribbon was for. One of our parents explained the ribbon and that’s when the woman shared that she was currently fighting brain cancer. When the game got started the mom who had spoken with the lady shared with me about their conversation… as I located the woman with my eyes my gut immediately began to stir and I felt the Spirit prompt me to go and pray with her.
God allowed me to share the gospel of Jesus Christ and pray with a stranger right there in the stands. I was able to use the prayer bracelet that my daughter Bekah had made me to share my family’s story and right then the woman’s arms were covered in chills and I asked her if I could pray over her… I don’t know if this woman knew the Lord… but if she didn’t I got to introduce him to her. The Lord allowed our team and my family’s story to be a reminder to this woman that she was not alone… and her name was Stacy… that’s my sister’s name… so guess what I won’t forget her name and will continue to lift her up before the Father by name.
As I returned to my chair, Bekah asked me what I was doing… and after I shared with her what I had done, her first words were “what color is brain cancer“.
God is good.
So for parents who have never done the Sunday ball thing, for parents who know the importance of not forsaking the assembly, for parents who are doing all they know to raise their girls in a God-centered home… what I saw that Sunday at the softball fields were people. People with problems and hurts and souls. People who loved their kids and were trying to support them in their dreams. People who needed the love of Christ.
Maybe, it might be a good idea for those of us who don’t find Sunday softball as a regular occurrence to not get upset because these people don’t come to us at church… and do what Christ commanded us to do and go to them.
They have cowboy church for the rodeo circuit… racing chaplains for the racing circuit, maybe it’s time to get a little red wagon full of Bibles and free waters and build a boom box on wheels blasting Tomlin and get a pop up shade tent with a cross monogrammed on it and hold Softball Sunday Services.
Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.
Matthew 28:19-20