This comes from MahaneySports.com:
I encourage fathers to watch actively and discerningly, never passively and superficially. There is no doubt that throughout the game you will hear one superlative after another attributed to the skill of the athletes. The accent throughout the game will be on skill, not character.
Nowhere is the word great mentioned more often in our culture than in the context of professional sports. If you watch any game this weekend and listen to the announcer’s commentary, then like a mantra you’ll probably hear the word great repeated throughout—great, great, great. Yet it may well be that nowhere in our culture is the absence of true greatness more evident than in professional sports. So be careful about cultivating an excessive love for professional athletics in your child.
Without minimizing the skill as a gift from God, I want to direct my son’s attention to character as theologically defined. So as Chad and I watch the game, I will draw his attention to any evidence of humility or unselfishness I observe, as well as any expression of arrogance or selfishness. I will celebrate the former and ridicule the latter.
I particularly like the last suggestion of looking for displays of arrogance/selfishness. I would add to this by saying, watch every second of the game looking for situations to mine for teachable moments. Whether you’re a coach, parent, sports minister, or player, make it a discipline to watch games closely and constantly ask yourself questions like:
How would that play have looked in the garden with no sin?
How would that coach interact with the official if the glory of God was his/her desire?
How would that player react to his great play if he wanted to honor God?
This is a great discipline to engage in because we are saturated with commentary regarding behavior in sports void of any Christian perspective. As a Christian, we have to force our self to drown out the noise and look critically with a God-glorifying lens.
