If your ability to play sports was taken away… who would you be? It’s a question a lot of athletes would have a tough time answering. Myself included. I spent years playing sports at a high level, and how good I was and how I performed started to define me. My ability to play or perform became my identity.
“Sports in our culture are important…
But how important should they be?
The avenue of sports is so positive on so many levels. However, I believe this identity crisis to be one of the biggest downsides of professional sports. The youth of today watches and wants to emulate the amazing athletes that grace our playing fields. But it has gone beyond wanting to jump, throw, and shoot like these athletes to wanting to be them. Kids are losing their identity of who God has created them to be.
Sports should be an outlet for kids. A chance for them to be creative, exercise, learn how to succeed and how to fail. It should not be who they are or whom they identify as. Are we raising a generation that needs to identify themselves with something? It might not be sports, but it is easy to turn a child’s gift or a parent’s desire into something the child is so consumed with that they loose who God created them to be.
Sports in our culture are important… but how important should they be? Are we as parents pushing—making sports more important than church, school, or people? Let’s enjoy athletics and all the good they have to offer, but please… Moms, Dads and Coaches, let our children attach themselves to something greater than a sport. Our future generation depends on it.
