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Family Exercise

Last night was Chase’s final soccer practice of the season.

A favorite last-practice tradition is for the kids (6 & 7 years old) to scrimmage against the parents.

It was hilarious, actually, as the kids skillfully dribbled the ball right past much bigger and faster adults. We lost track of the score, but I think the kids beat us 8-7.

Getting the parents in the game was a brilliant move on the coach’s part, for one important reason:

One hour of soccer practice each week isn’t enough.

In order for kids to really develop their soccer skills, they need to be playing every day. They need to be playing with their siblings and neighbors and, ideally, their parents. When mom and dad get involved, a child’s enjoyment and skill level both increase.

This same principle is at work when it comes to teaching our children about God. One hour of church isn’t going to properly equip a child for all that life is going throw at them. They need for mom and dad to get involved in their spiritual life. They need to have daily conversations about spiritual things.

And, just like they need to see mom and dad having fun and laughing while playing soccer, they need to witness their parents enjoying a vibrant relationship with God.

We believe this so strongly at Access Church that we make “Virtue Packs” available for families to spend time together focusing on each month’s virtue. This month our virtue is Joy, and virtue packs are available at the Resource Center. Each virtue pack includes an audio CD with a radio drama for the kids that teaches the virtue, and a roundtable of real-life parents discussing how to teach the virtue at home. There are also notecards you can use to encourage your children, and great discussion questions for talking about the virtue with your kids at various times through the day.

Don’t just sit on the sidelines and hope your kids will learn to love the game. Get in there and play it with them! They’ll learn a lot more, and you might even get a little exercise.