PARENTING November 22, 2004 Issue

Sundays and sports

By Sara Hoagland Hunter

When our two children were playing everything from lacrosse to the marimba, there were mornings I felt like an overworked air traffic controller trying to sort out the routes for the day. Putting God first sometimes seemed impossible amid the demands of jobs, schools, sports, and family activities.

That's why I'll be always be grateful for the example my own parents set in putting first things first. Remembering their rock-solid commitment to our spiritual education helped me set priorities for my own family. I'm sure it wasn't easy loading us four kids, each with his or her own agenda, into the car for Sunday School every week. Invariably, one sister was blow-drying her hair in a frenzy while the rest of us grumbled in the driveway. Then, during the ride, someone would complain about his or her Sunday School class. But my parents never flinched. "You're there to give," my father would answer calmly. And my mother would bring up ideas we could share with the rest of the class from the Christian Science Bible Lesson that we'd read for the week.

The worst was missing the annual Thanksgiving football game at our high school. For years, we brainstormed arguments to convince my mother we should be at the game on Thursday morning with all our friends, instead of at our church's Thanksgiving service. But her commitment to save one day a year to express our blessings as a family was unshakeable ("unreasonable," I think we called it).