GODLY TRAINING

“Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not turn from it.” Prov. 22:6

For the past three weeks, the attention of the world was fixated on France and the 2024 Paris Olympics. Besides the competition between athletes in many disciplines, the medals count, the ecstasy of victory and the agony of defeat, there were hundreds of human stories most of which had escaped the Networks’ camera lenses. Last week, Sister Prass brought us a race’s False Start story vs. the 2nd, 3rd, 4th …chance of God’s grace. I would like to share with you, and invite you to meditate on the following Olympics’ story posted on Facebook by Kristine Cole.

“Remember this Kenyan runner Abel Mutai who was just a few feet from the finish line, but became confused with the signage and stopped, thinking he had completed the race. A Spanish runner, Ivan Fernandez, was right behind him and, realizing what was happening, started shouting at the Kenyan to continue running. Mutai didn’t know Spanish and didn’t understand. Realizing what was taking place, Fernandez pushed Mutai to victory. A journalist asked Ivan ‘why did you do that?’ Ivan replied ‘My dream is that someday we can have a kind of community life where we push and help each other to win.’ The journalist insisted, ‘But why did you let the Kenyan win?’ Ivan replied, ‘I didn’t let him win, he was going to win. The race was his.’ The journalist insisted again, ‘But you could have won!’ Ivan looked at him and replied, ‘But what would be the merit of my victory? What would be the honor in that medal? ‘What would my mother think of that?’”

“WHAT WOULD MY MOTHER THINK OF THAT?”  As I read the story, and think about Fernandez’ action and his reason for it, the Proverb verse above came to my mind as I meditate on how we teach our children in this world where winning is everything and losing is unthinkable, unacceptable; a world of I, me, and mine. The events of January 6th, born out of a President of the United States’ refusal to accept that he had lost the election are a vivid example of that world. I like the way the verse reads in the Contemporary English Version: “Teach your children right from wrong, and when they are grown, they will still do right.”

What values are we teaching our children? “Win at all costs.” “The end justifies the means.” How about winning with honor? What about losing with grace? Yes, Fernandez could have won the gold medal; at what cost? a rejection of his moral value? The context may be different, but there is a strong parallel with Jesus’ admonition in Luke 9: 25. “What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?”

There is no guarantee that our children, grandchildren, or great grandchildren will apply to their lives all that we have taught them. But that does not free us from our responsibility to teach them the godly values and principles according to which God himself has called us to live; and, to teach them to generation after generation.

Let us Pray. Lord God, we praise you and give you thanks for all that you are doing in our lives and the lives of our children. We give you thanks for your Word, the lamp unto our feet. Empower us and inspire us to live according to this Word, and to teach it to our children. Help them to accept, and to apply this teaching to their lives, and not just conform to the pattern of the world; in the matchless name of Jesus, we pray. Amen, and Amen.

By Rev. Franck Aquilh