Some Things Never Change

(Originally written for The Baldwin Bulletin: Pastor's Column July 5, 2023)

Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it. (Proverbs 22:6)

When I was a kid, I played baseball, basketball, and soccer in my hometown’s rec league. If I wanted to play, my parents would sign me up. If I decided I didn’t like the sport or didn’t want to play anymore, they made me finish the season (except for my final year of Little League baseball when I got sick of riding the bench and completely lost interest).

Fast forward to this summer and my wife and I enrolled our two oldest children in softball and t-ball for their first summer team sports. My interest in baseball has continued as a fan of the White Sox. My kids have shown interest in the sport over the last year, helped by having friends who are playing. We were gone during the first week of practices, so I wanted to practice some with them at home before their first nights and when we have time as the season goes on. My children are headstrong, though—I have no idea who they picked that up from, and dad is the last person they want to learn from—again, no idea where that came from.

The concept of this article is not meant to be about those traits that somehow passed from me to them; it’s about fundamental skills. There are things I’ve been trying to teach them from what I remember: how to stand “ready” when you’re fielding, how to swing the bat and practice that motion, how to shuffle and get your mitt down if you’re fielding groundballs. I was somewhat worried I would teach them one thing—how I learned almost 30 years ago, but then they’d go to practice where their coaches would teach them something else, and they’d be confused. Thankfully, that worry wasn’t necessary, as I’ve seen their coaches teach them the same skills! Some things never change.

Proverbs 22:6 reminds us of the importance of training our children. By no means am I the best father or have loads of parenting advice. However, the idea that we as parents, grandparents, and believing-adults have an influential and formative role in the lives of our children and youth is one that I take seriously. Notice there is a “direction” in this verse—in the way he should go. Scripture does not teach hands-off, free-range, discipline-less parenting, where we just keep our kids alive. No, there’s an expectation that adults, especially parents, should know and want to implement and pass along certain things to the next generation. We should know right from wrong. We should know what is beneficial and what is harmful. We may sin and make mistakes—we can and must own that, but our struggles should not stop us from thinking we have much to offer.

If we’ve never played baseball or softball before, most of us don’t know what we’re doing when we try to play it. We can picture in our heads what it looks like to see someone in the field or at bat and assume we’re doing the same thing as them, but a coach and other onlookers see differently. Because they know can see the problems, they can correct them. When they see success or growth, they can celebrate that, too. As believers, we can doubt ourselves pretty quickly that we know and have anything beneficial to offer, but you do have things to offer. God has put you in roles and relationships by which you can help train others up in the way they should go. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known (1 Corinthians 13:11-12).