Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.
On my vacation I am enjoying two things (besides family time) - the Olympics and listening to educational lectures. These things have pointed to one thing for me - training. This summer our women's group studied Second Timothy and I was impacted by our conversation about the first part of Chapter 2 where Paul compares Christians to soldiers, athletes and farmers. The athletes train themselves and we as Christians are to do the same. As I watch the Olympics I am overwhelmed by the amount of dedication, hard work, focus, time and training that went into developing these athletes.
As I listened to the conversation about Michael Phelps' first swim it was all abuzz with the fact that he hadn't trained for that stroke and distance. He himself said that he had not practiced finishing strong in that stroke and it showed in his performance. If one of the best swimmers in the world needs to practice and train for a particular end - how much more should we be doing so in light of the passage above?
Watching all of these athletes made me realize just how sloppy and untrained I am- and not just physically. Am I pointing myself, my family, my kids toward some goal or are we just passing time? It helped me realize that having a clear goal would probably make decisions easier and bring more order to our lives? It would probably also help motivate my sons to have a sense that they are preparing for something worthwhile - that there is purpose in it all. The hard thing is that our culture is changing so swiftly that it is hard to predict what will happen next.
I do however know one who does know the future and is unchanging. So, if I start by helping my boys know Him it might be good training for the long term.
I originally thought that I would write just one quick post about this - but as I started thinking more about it many of the things I have been reading and listening to are coming together. So, I think this will be a series of posts. This is not going to be so much of a "how to" - more of a "why to" and what to consider along the way.
My parents have a sign in their house "If you aim at nothing. You will hit it." I don't want to be one that misses the mark.
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