| Where Are the Cheerleaders?
Where Are the Cheerleaders?
By Rick Boyer
In my travels recently I happened to see the final seconds of a televised basketball game. Since our family doesn’t own a television it isn’t often that we see the mass hysteria that accompanies most athletic contests. This particular game was a cliffhanger and the crowd was predictably frantic as the seconds ticked off the clock and the game ended.
I couldn’t help remarking to Marilyn later what strange creatures we humans are. Tow teams of five men each, selected from the best of the best and prepared by thousands of hours of training, throw an air-filled ball around a gym and throu a metal hoop and thousands look on as though the fate of the world was being decided on the gym floor bfore their eyes.
I have no quarrel with those who like to play ball. I like playing ball myself and I believe there is a place in a Christian’s life for rest and recreation. Nor do I criticize those who enjoy watching athletic events. I’m simply concerned about the values prevalent in a nation that so worships professional game-playing while accomplishments of real and eternal importance go unnoticed.
Who is cheering for parents? To my way of thinking, no group of people is more important and less appreciated in relation to their value. The moms and dads, rockers of the cradle. The bread winners and home makers. The men and women who daily subjugate their own desires and preferences for the sake of God’s inheritance. The unsung heroes of every race, every neighborhood, every nation.
Our society is hostile to families. In the realm of education in particular, parents are viewed as laymen who are unqualified to to teach their own children or even pick schools for them. They cannot be trusted to know what is best for “the state’s “ children.The twentieth century church is often lacking in appreciation for the capability find diligence of parents a well. If you sing a beautiful solo, preach a moving sermon, sell your home to move to the mission field or give away fifty Gospel tracts in a week you will be praised and respected. And you should be. If don’t with pure motives, all those things are good and valuable contributions. But what if all you sang this week were children’s songs and lullabies? What if your sermon was heard to by five hundred people but by one five-year-old? What if the nice home you sacrificed is one you never owned because you gave up a second income so Mom could stay home and raise babies? What if, rather than giving fifty Gospel tracts, you gave fifty diaper changes? Are you less spiritual or less valuable because your labors of love seem mundane in the sight of men?
I think mothers in particular are undervalued. I am a dad and my hat is off to you hwo are fathering alos. Every day of your limfe you carry on your shoulders the responsibility ofor the success and happiness of your wives and children. Most of you leave home each morning for a job that is not exactly your idea of a high old time. You do it for Them. You mainaitn a house and a car and a number of other black holes of your enery and expense all to provide for your precious family. And chances are your for.e overlaps some with your wife’s, so that you dable in cleaning, cooking, or whatever, occasionally also.
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