By: Tracy Steel
Have you heard of the great Green Bay Packer Coach, Vince Lombardi? He transformed the Packers from a losing team, turning them into a team that won five NFL championships.
“… Football in hand, the great coach walked to the front of the room… held out the pigskin in front of him, and said, ‘Gentlemen, this is a football.’ Lombardi stressed fundamentals… He would then take the team out and show them the field. He’d point out the out-of-bounds lines and the end zones. Then, he would remind the players that the football is to go across the end zone line…”
I wonder, Mama, does your daughter know our “spiritual football,” or the Bible? Can she share its fundamental truths? Does she grasp where the Biblical “out-of-bounds lines” are and why God has placed them where He has placed them?
With summer here, I pray you will take time around the pool, or as you walk through the park, to talk some “spiritual football” with your daughter. Just as Coach Lombardi stressed the fundamentals to his players, we must stress the fundamentals of our faith with our daughters too.
Even if your girl grew up in Sunday School or Awana, does not mean she has a head and heart knowledge of the fundamentals. Elements of faith that was new and exciting to her around age 5 or 7, becomes expected and routine. I’ve seen this to be true in the lives of several teen girls to whom I’ve ministered.
I’ve even seen this happen in my adult life. Perhaps you can relate. So do not assume or your daughter may step out onto the “field” without her helmet or shoulder pads.
“While Apollos was in Corinth, Paul traveled through the interior regions until he reached Ephesus, on the coast, where he found several believers. ‘Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?’ he asked them. ‘No,’ they replied, ‘we haven’t even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.’” (Acts 19:1-2, NLT)
The disciples had not heard that there is a Holy Spirit! Whoa! To be fair, they did not have the completed Biblical cannon and nice leather bound Bibles with study notes in them. CNN or Fox News was not around to report on the empty tomb of Jesus Christ, either; however, these men were followers of John the Baptist. John taught about a coming Messiah, who baptized with the Holy Spirit (Luke 3:16), and yet his disciples still missed the memo on this fundamental “football.” The believers mentioned in Acts 19 were not playing with their helmets and shoulder pads.
This brings me back to our daughters. Our girls have one, or several leather bound Bibles. They have access to the internet and Fox News, but our spiritual football is getting warped, misinterpreted and ripped out of context. Our girls need to know the “football.”
Fellow mamas, I pray for God to give you and me the wisdom to see the gap or misunderstanding in our girls’ mind and heart pertaining to the “spiritual football.” The countdown to game time is ticking…
Leave a Reply