Flag Football Phenom

Flag Football has over 7 million kids playing between 6-12. It is a super fast growing sport. I believe one reason it is promoted and funded is to insure the future of football fans in America. It reminds us that what we learn as kids sticks with us as adults and why Christian education of young kids is critical. 

Transcript

Ethan: 0:00

Raising joyful children in an angry world, a podcast dedicated to faithful parents navigating their families through a stormy culture

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Well, the big game this past Sunday had its largest television audience ever. I think the record was 122, maybe 125 million viewers. But the game I want to talk about is my grandson's last flag football game of the season, the Friday before in Tampa, this is raising joyful children in an angry world. I'm your host, Paul Osborne. When we got to the field. My wife and I, we were shocked. There were these two full size football fields looked like they were brand new in this park stadium lighting. Each field had six games. They were playing sideline to sideline and they started at like five o'clock. So that's 120 kids an hour and that starts Friday and it keeps going. And I've looked this up. And ever since the NFL got involved with this flag football stuff, there are now seven over 7 million kids between six and 12 playing the game. That's 28 percent of the kids in the United States. Nothing wrong with it. Great guy. They're getting exercise, having fun. But if you, but the thing I want to say about this, two things is one, well, how you keep that viewership, those fans watching you every final, right? 120 million viewers and all these people filling stadiums up around NFL cities. Well, you get kids playing between six and 12 and when they become adults, they're more likely to want to be a fan as an adult. I want to say the same thing holds up in Christianity. I realize that God is the giver of faith. He, you know, brings the Holy Spirit, opens our eyes, all that, all that doctrinal stuff. But there's a reality that kids who are raised with a priority of church attendance are more likely to attend and prioritize it as an adult, particularly if they've gone in this tender age when the soil is soft to the heart, between 6 and 12. And the other thing I noticed in this game was it's just a giant game of tag. Whoever has the ball is it, and that's who you're trying to get. The coach for my grandson's team, he has like this NFL playbook armband, right? He's got all these plays on it. For these kids to kind of like run and my grandson and his friend, when they weren't in the game, they understood this is tag. Well, they kept playing tag on the sideline. They weren't watching the team and learning and all that sort of stuff, but they are six. And the thing I want to point out about it is we've got to learn. That's the main thing that the kids see is what's the main concept here? What is the main. Thing that we're trying to teach them, right? That can get really lost in Christianity. As I saw in that game, I mean, the coach has the armband on, he's picking up the kids. Some kid figures out how to tie his flag so that doesn't come off. And that causes a controversy. The referees have to review. I mean, it was, it was, uh, it was something. But the main thing that we are trying to teach as parents. I'm really glad that our church is doing a vacation Bible school this summer called True North. Because it gets to the heart of the answer and the information and the concept. Our faith is simply trying to teach our kids, what can you trust? See, true north is essentially that, like what's true and what can you trust? And so we'll have, we'll talk about stars and a compass and Bible stories and we'll play games, but we all around that concept of how do I trust? What can I trust? Who's trustworthy? And of course the, the ultimate answer to that is, well, you have to trust the Jesus. Is the king of this world, of this universe, because that one word, that one thing that a person trusts to be true, I will tell you, it drives everything else that we believe who you can trust as a trusted guide, what information is true. Everything comes down to that. And you really see this, uh, I'm kind of on what I call summer camp in the winter for retirees, 55 plus community, snow birders, whatever you want to call us. And you meet a lot of people and you have a lot of conversations cause it's, you know, it's kind of summer camp. You play cards and you play shuffleboard and you have music and fun times and people meet for drinks and play games. And you do get into some conversations, and you realize, hmm, a lot of people have some really very weird ideas, well, I should call them culturally common ideas that are not Christian. Might see life as a roll the dice. Oh, I got lucky. I'm, I'm, I'm lucky. Or I worked hard and therefore I got all of this. It's survival of the fittest. Like even concepts about love, romance, like your spouse. I got lucky. It was all random. And you see these influences of what people believe and how it affects them. Even, even sometimes we have had some opportunities to meet some of the younger people through some friends who live down here and you see kind of the same thing. Like there's no real confidence in that something is trustworthy. It's all based on some kind of chance. And the thing that I think you have to recognize in parenting is that the six to 12 year old is going to reach 13. They're going to ask questions. What's love? What's wisdom? What's true? What can I trust? In fact, there's going to be some storm years. There's going to be some betrayals. There's going to be some storms that come into your life, particularly in the teen years. And you better have it figured out. What can you trust? What can you, what can you count on? And then eventually that child reaches the age of 18 or 25. Oh, well, what is the purpose of my life? What, what's my destiny? What, what do I need to know that's true? How can I trust a relationship? You see, in the young people that fail to get this, they become what the Bible calls the the chaff, the straw. That the wind blows away. In other words, it just kind of blows with whatever thing is popular, whatever the cultural influences are, that's what they're chasing. You, and you begin to realize in America that a lot of us have sort of thrown off the heritage and the traditions of Sunday school. A lot of folks kind of swim away from formalities like teaching your kids, the catechisms, the, Lord's Prayer, the Apostles Creed, these kinds of things. And you're going to be encouraged, your kids are going to be encouraged to live by self generated convictions, self generated wisdom, navigating the world on what they can rely on. And trust me, they're going to have, resources in this artificial intelligence stuff that can give them answers to things much faster than any of us ever could. And at the same time, right, where we see a society that is distrustful of the supernatural, it has almost a contempt for the past. And so below this way of life. The child that's not having these seeds planted doesn't understand what's trustworthy, doesn't understand that everything begins with understanding Jesus is the king of the universe and all truth comes out of that. Well, below that life that doesn't have it is an ocean of doubt about the most profound questions. How am I supposed to live? What's happiness? Am I created or am I a product of chance? Is there a God? What are my duties? What's a love? What's a family? What is a good life? And you're going to see these folks and you meet them and they just can't escape this flood of doubts and restlessness. And you know, you can mask it with, with alcohol and you know, mind numbing drugs. You can go on experiences, you can take vacations, you can build wealth, but to have certainty, wisdom. About life's most complex and most challenging question. Your child's soul is going to have to be optimized by God himself. And it starts with learning to what we can trust in the age of influence. As I say, that's when the soil of the soul is soft, it's tillable, and it's ready to be seeded. And you begin to teach your kids, this is what we can trust. That our life is only limited by the size of our God and our God is generous. He redeems. He refreshes. He fills our souls with everything that is good. You see, for the Christian, our God is great and He is generous and we have this concept. We now can trust in Him regardless of our circumstances. That there is no such thing as random chance or the life's a gamble or the world is filled with scarcity and that you've got to just go grab all you can right now. It's kind of funny. You get into a lot of conversations down with people, particularly in my age group, and they often repeat what they heard on the news. And what's funny is in the current news media, and I'm talking both liberal and conservative, you have the highest. Ever. Accounts of having to pay out. For lying, plagiarizing, slandering, and libel. The suits that have come about are almost unimaginable. This is why I say, this is, this is what I want to take away from flag football. See the age group people understand, the world understands why it's significant. And understand that doing that at the earlier of age, you're going to be able to deal with the profound questions of what is. It to be human, who am I, what, what am I supposed to be about because being human is complex what we don't want to be is the mimic people who do whatever is popular and try to fit in with whatever is popular. That's, that's the big concern. What you see seven and a half million kids playing flag football, do they all really want to do that? Or is this become kind of the thing that people do again? I'm not trying to criticize it or not criticize it. But for your kids to be able to embrace what's peaceful, what's joyful, what's, what's great, what's good. What's beautiful. They're going to have to understand what's true and what they can trust. And that has to be done in the home through the scriptures and at your church. And it really has to get done the earlier, the better. Then you will find a child that actually understands who they are and what they can trust and has a true vision from God for their life. The ultimate battle for the heart and soul is a fight for identity. Our king invites our kids to know who they are, what to believe, and where they belong. Until next time, let's remember the words for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.