“Your boys will never play in high school if they don’t join this team.”
That was the warning. I’d coached recreational soccer for years. Now a nervous dad from the bleachers was giving me an ultimatum. His son would be leaving our team to play travel soccer, with tournaments all weekend long for three months. These boys were eight years old.
A few years later, this same dad asked my help to re-boot the rec-league since his son and many others had burned out on travel soccer. Another dad said, “I’d like to get up in the middle of town and shout: ‘Can we all just slow down?!'”
Parents must learn to deal with a lot of pressures:
Perfect grades. Private coaching. Comparisons. Ceaseless competition….
The pressure to project a wrinkle-free life comes with the territory of parenting. The fear of falling, the fear of missing out, the fear of slipping behind all quicken the pace of modern life. We push the accelerator of activity towards the horizon where we think we see some point of arrival where we can tell the world, “We made it!”
If you’re being lured by the illusion of arrival, then maybe you need a little perspective. If the pace of life just keeps speeding up, then maybe you need inspiration to dance to the beat of a different drum. There’s a richness to life that can only come by slowing down, serving, and sacrificing for someone else. We need a different set of scales to measure the weight and worth of young lives.
Now grab a hankie and click play.
“Come to me all you are weary…and I will give you rest for your souls.” (Matt. 11:28)
“Grab a hankie” was not a sufficient enough warning!! 🙂 Thanks, Tim. Great post.
Ditto, to Joani’s post!