Play ball....

Play ball....

40 years ago, my oldest son played T-Ball....the beginners baseball game...

At the time it was the only sport in our area for little ones...

Successively, our children swam on the swim team, played Soccer, endured piano and drum lessons, wrestled and tried football, each with varying degrees of success...

One went on to play well in soccer and another still plays the piano well...while the others play the radio well or have switched to biking or walking...

We tried out a lot of possible interests as they were growing up...

For the last few years, I have watched my grandchildren do the same thing....4H, Boy Scouts, swim team, and now T-Ball again, a full circle...

Those little girls and boy, ages 4-6, swing that bat over and over again, sometimes actually hitting a ball, then run toward first base and finally around the bases, no scores are kept, cheering parents and grandparents as they come into home plate...two complete rounds of play and the game is over...treats for the team..and home with tales of success and “winning”...

There maybe some future baseball “hall of famers” there, but not sure yet...but there  are excellent “grass pullers”, rock throwers, dreamers,  cheerleaders, visitors....as several of the team are doing  more than keeping an eye on the ball...

They are “infants” to this game...but are learning a new skill or interest....

We all start somewhere...there is not usually instant success in learning a new skill...we start as babes...and must practice and mature, going from milk to solid food...crawling to walking, unskilled to skilled....learning new techniques, adding to our knowledge and skills as we grow, age...perseverance...or a need to accomplish...

In  spiritual lessons, we as parents and grandparents have the opportunity to teach about God as well...Both with our actions and words...help us to teach well and that which is needed...helping us to bring our children into maturity...help me to continue to grow in Your grace no mater the age...

Thank YOU...

Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.

Deuteronomy 6:4-7 

Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.

Deuteronomy 11:19

Come, my children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord.

Psalm 34:11

Children’s children are a crown to the aged, and parents are the pride of their children.

Proverbs 17:6

When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.

1 Corinthians 13:11 

We have much to say about this, but it is hard to make it clear to you because you no longer try to understand. In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.

Hebrews 5:11-14