What is the difference between traditional sports and games versus Christ-centered sports and games?

For anyone who chooses to play ping pong, foosball, basketball, or other sports and games with us, please understand that we do not practice traditional sports here. Because we are committed disciples and followers of Jesus Christ, we choose to practice only Christ-centered sports and games. 

You may be wondering, what’s the difference between traditional sports like pickleball and ping-pong and Christ-centered sports? In short, when you choose to play Christ-centered sports, games, or activities and live your life in a Christ-centered way, then in all your interactions, you place far more importance on relationships than on worrying about who wins or loses the game. You choose to be very careful and wise with every thought and word that comes out of your mouth: no swearing, no unkind words toward yourself or others, no anger, etc., even if you lose an important point or game.

You choose to be kind, respectful, loving, patient, generous, and helpful to everyone you deal with in every interaction – – – as Jesus Christ taught us to do through the amazing example of His life and teachings – – – even when you have just lost a point or an important game in pickleball or ping-pong, or if you are in a stressful situation or having a bad day and someone is in a bad mood with you at work, at home, or wherever you are.

We pause midway through our activities, after latecomers arrive, for prayer, an uplifting song, and an uplifting spiritual message—such as a powerful quote from the Bible, the Book of Mormon, and other uplifting sources. Many of you may not have an interest in sports and games, but you may enjoy our meetings even more than others simply by visiting and making friends at our meetings with other good people who desire to live joyful, Christ-centered lives.

When you choose to live your life in a Christ-centered way, you keep in mind that relationships are what matter most and bring the greatest joy and inner peace during our brief time on earth and forever after – – – not “things” that money can buy, like fun and expensive activities, big fancy houses, or cars, or wealth, or fame, or a beautiful body, or worldly pleasures, etc. Throughout my 67 years on earth, I have gradually and prayerfully learned with certainty that nothing that money can buy is worth much in comparison to the wonderful gifts or fruits of the Spirit that our loving Heavenly Father freely gives to those who simply choose to follow His teachings with full purpose of heart as promised in Galatians 5:22: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness.” These spiritual gifts from God and our testimony of Jesus Christ and His restored gospel are worth far more to us than our house, our cars, or all the riches in the world.

Our loving Heavenly Father has purposely designed life so that the things money can buy cannot bring real joy or lasting happiness in this life or beyond, because that would not be fair to those born into poverty, with very little opportunity to escape that situation. I realize that some situations simply do not seem fair at all in this short life on earth, but that is because too often we look at things with a very short-term perspective, and God does not. Each of us is a spirit being (a spirit child—a son or daughter of God), and we lived with our Heavenly Father before coming to earth, and we learned much there, but we could not progress much further without leaving there and coming to earth school to obtain a physical body and be tested. God’s prophets have taught us that, compared to all eternity, our time on earth is like a nanosecond or the blink of an eye. If we look at it from an eternal perspective, we learn that our loving Heavenly Father is even better than fair. In the eternities, each of us will be blessed with far more than we deserve. And those who choose to be grumpy, selfish, dishonest, abusive, and mean to others will surely suffer for those bad and painful choices for a while—but only a few will suffer for all eternity. Even when our young children make bad choices and are mean and grumpy to their siblings, we, as loving and devoted parents, don’t hate or punish them forever for it by sitting them in a corner, etc., do we? Of course not, and neither does God with us as His beloved but imperfect children. To understand this better, please read and pray over the article titled: “God’s Loving, Just, and Beautiful Plan of Happiness for His Children’s Eternal Future vs. The One Heaven and One Hell Plan.”

       I have two very important questions for each of you to reflect on:

Question #1: What do you think is at least 10 times more joyful: traditional sports or Christ-centered sports? – – Yes, you are absolutely right that there is far more joy in living according to the joy-producing teachings of Jesus Christ, because truly, all real joy during our short time on earth, and forever after, is in the quality of our trusting and loving relationships with God, with ourselves, with family members, and with others.

Important Question #2: What do you think is at least ten times more joyful: a traditional life or a Christ-centered life? – – – Yes, you are right, a Christ-centered life is far more joyful than any other kind of life, because it greatly blesses and strengthens all of our most important and joyful relationships forever.

A very wise person once taught that “there are really only two ways to experience true joy. One is to feel real love from someone, and the other is to feel real love for someone.” No amount of money can buy true joy. And if you stop to reflect on that, that’s great, because otherwise it wouldn’t be fair at all for our loving Heavenly Father to design things so that you can buy true happiness or joy with money, because many people grow up in impoverished conditions, and with very few opportunities to make much money.

One of our goals with our Christ-centered sports and games activities is to have fun together as friends. However, the most important and joyful purpose of Christ-centered sports and games is for us all to help one another gradually train our thoughts, habits, and inner spiritual part to become more Christlike, loving, and kind, so that we may all experience more joy, love, inner peace, and more loving and trusting relationships with God, with ourselves, with our family members, and with one another during our short earthly school and probationary period and for all eternity.

I’d like to share a little riddle with you. Listen carefully and see if any of you can find the answer to this riddle:

As I read the Riddle, try to figure out who or what the answer is:

Who or what am I?

I am your constant companion.

That’s why I am either your greatest help or your greatest burden.

I will push you forward or drag you down.

And I am completely at your service.

Half the things you do, you better hand them over to me and I’ll do them quickly and correctly.

I’m easy to handle; you just have to be firm with me.

Show me exactly how you want something done and after a few lessons, I’ll do it automatically.

I am the servant of all great men and women and, unfortunately, also of all failures.

Those who are great, I have made great. Those who are failures, I have made failures.

I am not a machine, although I work with the precision and repetition of a machine, as well as the intelligence of a human.

You can lead me to profit or ruin, it’s all the same to me.

Take me, train me, be firm with me, and I’ll lay the world at your feet. Be easy on me, and I’ll destroy you.

Who am I?

(Can anyone tell us who or what I am?)

I am Habit.

The following is a great, powerful quote from John Dryden: “First we make our habits, and then our habits make us.”

I like to think of our short time on earth as a period of testing and learning in earthly school, because that’s how God has described it in the Scriptures He has given us, to guide our lives in the most progressive and joy-producing ways.

In the daily game of life, about once or twice a day, someone does something that annoys or frustrates us, and so we have the opportunity to choose: Will I pass this earthly school test by choosing to react with kindness, respect, courtesy, compassion, and love, as Jesus Christ taught us to do through the example of His life and teachings, or not?

Every few seconds while playing pickleball, ping-pong, tennis, basketball, and many other sports; the point or the game goes our way or our opponent’s – – – which gives us the wonderful opportunity every few seconds to work on training our thought process and “habits” to always react with kindness, respect, courtesy, encouragement, warm smiles, etc. – – – or the opposites, – – – toward ourselves, our teammates, and our opponents – – and even toward God, who sees all things.

Pause to reflect on the following: If over time you have developed some painful habits that damage your relationships, sometimes reacting with impatience, complaining, bad mood, selfishness, or anger, etc., when things don’t go your way; and you and your family would prefer to enjoy loving, trusting relationships; then, with God’s help, you can overcome these painful habits by prayerfully retraining your habits and your way of thinking while enjoying good relationships with our Christ-centered sports and games activities.

If we choose with every point of the Christ-Centered game or sport to work on training our minds and habits to react with kindness and respect toward every person in the competition, including ourselves, our teammates, and opponents—even when we or our doubles partner makes a mistake—then we will learn to build and maintain many joyful and uplifting friendships, which means a happy, joyful, and thankful life on earth and forevermore.

There is no habit more important or more joyful that we can develop than that of sharing kindness, love, and service toward our family members and others.