More Gooder

I have the day off, and I just returned from a brisk game of back-yard baseball with some of my younger kids and their cousins. With a large family, there are almost always enough of us at any given time for a game of baseball in some form or another.

Every time I play this game with my kids I think of what a good opportunity sports give us to teach little lessons that will serve them well in life. However I have to admit that we don't play as often as I would like. Games give them an opportunity to experience the thrill of success and the agony of defeat. Their physical abilities don't always match up to their own expectations. Striking out or even just getting thrown out is no fun for anyone, but it's particularly hard for a competitive five year old who hates to lose and who still needs to work on self-control.

Even taking turns can be a challenge if you let the kids reorganize the batting order when they feel like it; someone always gets the short end of the bat when that happens. Here is the reminder for parents. Games like baseball have relatively simple rules - just like the life of a child should be guarded and shaped by some relatively simple rules. It's fun to watch the kids mature within the rules of the game. The rules need to consider the frame of the children and they need to be consistently applied. The kids appreciate predictability. And they appreciate having a chance to make it safely to first base now and then. Positive changes in attitude can sometimes be seen within an hour. It feels like it takes longer to see results in 'real life', but that's probably more a result of my own inconsistency than it is their response to the rules of the game.

It takes much more than a morning of baseball to build the character that I want our children to have, but it's a fun way to work on it. I also gained a few words of wisdom today. After one particularly hard earned out at first base, the runner was a little discouraged. But a wiser five-year old offered this comfort: "When you get more gooder; you'll get more better."

Play ball!