September 22, 2015

“Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.” Proverbs 22:6

One of the things that is so charming and disarming about infants is their innocence. They have no idea of the potential dangers that surround them on every side. The learning curve they face is extremely steep and possibly disastrous if not carefully nurtured by adults who love them. As the old expression goes, “What they don’t know could kill them.”

Adults (parents) know things that kids don’t. The responsibility of a parent is to teach their children those things they know that their children have not yet discovered. Parents much teach their kids the things that they know that their children haven’t yet learned, especially the harmful things. We often hear horrifying stories of tragic things happening to children left unguarded or unsupervised.

In our teaching paradigm of the Home Run Life, parents must teach their kids how to connect with God at home plate and then how to run the bases in a winning way.

Even though I played college baseball, I didn’t learn about playing baseball at that level. There are a lot of big, strong, hard throwing guys at that level. Someone who didn’t know what he is doing could get seriously hurt! I learned all the rules and skills and fundamental in the safety of practices under the supervision of little league coaches. They knew all the things I didn’t know and patiently taught me. Because of the training and knowledge they imparted to me I was able to adapt at each higher level of competition.

Such is the role of parents with their kids and the Home Run Life is a helpful paradigm for healthy parenting.

That is why we are dedicating five weeks on the teaching series “Raising Home Run Kids”.

In case sports analogies don’t register with you, I share with you one of my favorite jokes to illustrate my point.

A Roman Catholic Priest, an Anglican priest and a Baptist preacher were standing near a river conversing when the subject of which church was nearest to the teaching of God arose. The Roman Catholic priest said that of course there was no argument that the Roman Catholic church was they were descended directly from the Apostles, in fact Peter was their first Pope. He said in fact so close are we that I can even walk on water like Jesus and he proceeded to walk on the water to the other side.

The Anglican Priest said the Anglican church was very similar in origin to the Catholics and he too demonstrated his ability to walk on water like Jesus Christ. The Baptist preacher said that he could not care where their origins were, he studied the word and preached it purely, and without any embellishments. Since they could walk on water he should be even better at it. He took one step forward and sunk knee deep into the river. As the Baptist preached flailed wildly in his attempts to stay afloat, the Roman Catholic Priest whispered to the Anglican Priest, "Do you think we should tell him where the rocks are?"

Children need to be taught where the rocks are by someone who loves them.