Football and The Church
When I was a young boy, we played football. We played in the front and back yards, in the streets, in the parking lot, and in the parks. We took footballs everywhere we went because we loved the game. My kids never did that, and so, they do not have the same love for the game that I do. What changed? They spent their time on other things: video games, cable television, and the Internet. They do not know football because they did not play football. They did not play football because they spent their time on other things.
The same could be said of any activity in which we engage. The time we spend in it significantly increasing our appreciation of it and our love for it, but it does not answer the question: On what activities will I choose to spend my time? That question must be answered by the values we set for ourselves and for our families. If I have no values, then the world will impose its values on me, and I will spend my time with the world and love the world. But we are admonished, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (1 John 2:15). That means I must adopt godly values for my family. Once that is done, then I must spend time pursuing those values.
Where is God in your list of values? Where is the church? Where is the Bible? Where is your relationship with Jesus Christ? We must spend time pursuing these things. If we do not, then our appreciation and love of them will diminish and eventually disappear.