It's Baseball Season

Find a long list of Bible verses to share with your children that prove the maxims of baseball not only true, but also quite relevant to our daily lives!

By Caryl W. Krueger.

Categories: Sports

You say "What has baseball to do with parenting and Bible study?" Well, let me explain. As a life-long baseball fan (I have attended spring training, the World Series, and even caught a home run while sitting in the Wrigley Field bleachers), I consider myself a very minor authority on the subject.

So that any parent can easily make the connection between the sport and the Bible, I've listed some common elements of baseball correlating to a supportive Bible verse (all from the King James version). Depending on age, your kids should be interested in some of these connections.

• Baseball is a team sport. Yes, and you are on the best team when you align yourself with God's abilities: as Paul says, "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me" ( Philippians 4:13).
• Baseball requires practice. So does growing up. Paul tells teen Timothy: "Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed" (2 Timothy 2:15).
• Baseball requires each player to do his/her assigned part. As in family life, when everyone cooperates, no one has to carry the whole responsibility. "I mean not that other men be eased, and ye be burdened...that now at this time your abundance may be a supply for their want, that their abundance also may be a supply for your want: that there may be equality" (2 Corinthians 8: 13, 14).
• Baseball provides good coaches. And you always have good counsel from the best coach ever: "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, .... (Psalm 46: 1, 2).
• Baseball sometimes includes "trash talk." Take comfort from these words from Proverbs 10: 11,12: "Hatred stirreth up strifes; but love covereth all sins. In the lips of him that hath understanding wisdom is found: ...."
• Baseball players should not cheat. Don't be sucked in! As it warns in Proverbs 1: 10: "...if sinners entice thee, consent thou not."
• Baseball gets kids outdoors. And they can be safe out there as it promises in Zechariah 8: 5: "And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls, playing in the streets thereof."
• Baseball sometimes has errors in the play. Most coaches say that errors come from fear. But there is freedom from fear for the children of God: "...God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power and of love, and of a sound mind" (2 Timothy 1: 7).
• Baseball doesn't require arguments. Anger can be controlled, as it says in Proverbs 11: 12: "He that is void of wisdom despiseth his neighbour: but a man of understanding holdeth his peace."
• Baseball can get stressful in the 9th inning. Never give up. Jesus says that in Mark 10: 27: "...With men it is impossible, but not with God; for with God all things are possible."
• And for a touch of humor, you can always ask your youngsters the oft-told question: "Where is baseball mentioned in the Bible?" Give the answer, somewhat distorting the first verse of Genesis 1: "In the 'big inning' God created the heaven and the earth."