Many parents often encourage their children to participate in organized sports. While sports can be a very fun activity for the children, there still needs to be a spiritual aspect to it. How can parents encourage kids to have a spiritual impact in sports? Encourage them to P.L.A.Y.

PRACTICE: One of the best things you can do as a parent is practice and play with your kids at home.  Coaches see practice as vitally important in playing games well.  Especially if it’s a team sport, practice with the entire team is crucial.  Practicing at home will give you quality and quantity time with your kids.  While we as parents may often practice sports activities with our kids at home, we often struggle to practice our faith at home.  Read the Bible together as a family.  Pray together as a family.  Go to church together as a family.  Play games at home together as a family.  Practice together as a family at home will give your child confidence as he practices with his team and plays in games.  This applies to living the Christian life outside the home as well.  A vibrant Christian faith lived in the home will often lead to children expressing a vibrant Christian faith outside the home.

LEARN: Spend time at home discovering what Scripture says about character and sports.  There are a variety of passages in the Bible that contain athletic metaphors.  Here are some: 1 Corinthians 4:9; 9:24-27; Galatians 2:2; 5:7; Philippians 2:16; 3:13-14; 2 Timothy 2:5; 4:7-8; Hebrews 12:1-2; Jude 1:3.  If your child has certain attitudes or actions that aren’t God-honoring, then discover some Scriptures that deal with those attitudes or actions, memorize them together, talk about them, and pray for God’s help.  Take the initiative to reference different verses before and after practices and games in the natural course of conversation.  Modeling this process will also enable your child to do the same with their peers.

AFFIRM: Most parents find it easy to see the areas where their children are deficient in sports.  We see their mistakes and faults.  We all have them and the intensity of sports can often bring out the worst in a person, even cheering parents.  We don’t need to ignore the areas that need to be worked on, especially if we are going to help them improve.  However, we need some balance.  Try the sandwich approach.  Identify something good you saw in your child and affirm them.  Identify something they need to work on and teach them how to improve.  Identify something good you saw in your child and affirm them.  Sandwich the improvement areas in the middle of the affirmation areas.  Your children will likely be more receptive to improving with this sandwich approach.

YIELD: Prayer yields our wills to God’s will. Teaching kids to pray is one way to encourage your kids to have an impact in sports and it starts at home first. Take the initiative to pray on the way to practices and games. Teach your kids to pray for their coach and other teammates and to honor God in their actions, words, and thoughts.

Enjoy discovering how God will use you and your child as you P.L.A.Y. and have a spiritual impact in sports. Our motto should be:  Play Hard – Have Fun – Build Up.

Ben Phillips and his wife, Karen, have three children and enjoy building faith @ home.  He serves as the Family Ministry Team Leader for the ABSC.