Why I'm Proud of My Son

This weekend, my eight year-old son played in his first All-Star baseball tournament. Now, it's a lot of fun to watch him and his friends play ball. They're pretty good too. They played nine games in two days and, after losing their very first game, played all the way back through the loser's bracket to win the tournament. What made it more fun is that my son was hitting the ball better than he has all year. Because I want him to have fun, I was pretty happy that he was playing so well.

But there was something else I wanted him to know made me really proud of him. It's that he only played eight games instead of nine - because he was in church with us during the first game on Sunday. You see, we've tried to teach our kids that following Jesus is more important than baseball or school or anything else. We felt strongly that missing baseball to be in church would allow us reinforce, rather than undermine, what we've tried to teach them.

But I wondered how my son would react. And do you know what? He never once complained. And he never once asked if he could go to the game instead of to church. He did ask if he could leave his class early that day - to return to the main service to celebrate the Lord's Supper with the rest of the church. My son has a long way to go as he grows up. But I am really proud of him because he seems to "get" what really matters - something that a lot of adults (even his dad, sometimes) don't get. And if he continues to "get" this, I pretty sure that the other things he needs to learn won't be nearly so hard for him to learn.