For a Healthy Appreciation of Sports
Gracious God,
There are so many good things you give us in life that provide added and undeserved joys. Included among those good things is the gift of sports. Being able to be engaged in competition as either a participant or a spectator can be a uniquely exhilarating experience. Cheering on and supporting our favorite team(s), whether we’re celebrating championships, lamenting down seasons, or stirring up rivalries, are all ways we bond together with others, too.
As with so many of your good gifts, they can be taken too far. Keep sports from taking an idolatrous shape in my heart and creeping into that spot of my first and greatest love. Help me to enjoy them in moderation, and not get too emotionally attached to wins or losses. Let me be willing to see the necessary situations in which I need to make sacrifices regarding my love of sports in order to give attention to more important matters. Permit healthy boundaries to exist so that sports are allowed their place without encroaching or overshadowing other areas of life. Let them remain a source of joy rather than something that robs joy from other areas of life.
In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.