Jenni Whymark reflects on the Euro 2025 football tournament and the lessons Christian parents can teach their youth and children
On the 5th of December 1921, the English FA banned women’s football. They actually stated that “the game of football is quite unsuitable for females and ought not to be encouraged.” Rumours have it that part of the dispute was down to how popular women’s football had become. But the ban stopped women playing and it wasn’t until 1993 that the FA would take over control of women’s football again.
101 years on from that first ban, the England Ladies team won their first Euros. Then, this year, they won their second. The growth of popularity of women’s football is huge. A game that was deemed “quite unsuitable” and now they’re smashing it!
How do we cope when public opinion changes? How do we raise our children in a world where the pendulum swings as to what is and is not ok for them? How do we teach our children that in a land of never-ending changes of opinion, that Jesus Christ remains the same yesterday, today and forever? Here’s four ideas:
1. Teaching resilience, grit and determination
We live in times where things can be unknown, unexpected and actually quite scary! We would all love to wrap our kids up in bubble wrap and not let the everchanging world impact them… but what we actually need to do is to raise our kids to be resilient and determined, able to take all the storms life throws and make it through. We can’t stop things happening – the parable of the wise and foolish builders showed that the storm came to both houses – we can teach our kids to build their lives on foundations that will last.
I hope and pray that one day my own children are willing to be publicly out there for Jesus like Michelle Agyemang was
The Lionesses showed incredible resilience, grit and determination. When they went behind, they kept fighting on. I mean, Lucy Bronze played the whole tournament with a fractured tibia! They made choices. They rallied together. And we need to teach our kids to make good choices. We need to ensure that they have opportunities to make friends and build communities in faith groups so that when things get hard, they don’t stand alone but have others who will stand with them. We need to provide opportunities for them to grow in faith. Buying them Bibles/resources, sending them to residentials, praying for them AND with them. Equipping them to know who God is, who they are and what they were created to do.
2. Teaching how to deal with losing
I hate losing at anything. I will seriously consider not playing something if I don’t think I can win. But I can lose. And I know the gracious thing is to say well done to the winner…! But do we let our kids lose at things? It’s easy to let them win. Everyone’s “happy”! But in reality, none of us are going to always win. Even the most gifted at something will have a bad day! So, we need to teach our kids how to deal with losing. How to get back up and try again. Building into that resilience.
We can be passionate about Jesus and love football, theatre, dance, crochet, gaming… and we need to teach our children that that’s how we do life!
The Lionesses lost their first match. They didn’t give up there. How do we teach our kids to get up and try again? To not walk away/give up when things don’t go as we hoped? How do we model that to them? Well, to be honest it’s about the times when we don’t get the win we hoped for. To show them how we deal with frustration and disappointment. There are healthy and unhealthy ways to deal with things – if we want our kids to pick the healthy ones, we need to be showing them how to. Don’t hide your losses from your kids. Own them. Talk about them. Don’t lose it and flip the Monopoly board over; or if you do…own it and talk about making the mistake.
3. Teaching that faith DOESN’T sit separately from the things we enjoy doing
It can become easy to compartmentalise life. I grew up going to church, when I became a Christian at around 15 one of my realisations was that God wanted every part of my life and not just the Sunday slots I’d been giving him. Christians in Sports helped me massively when I went to uni and was working out being a Christian and playing football. Although I always found it hard to pray that my opponent would have their best ever game, it helped me to live out my faith on the pitch. There are SO many examples at the moment of Christian footballers owning and sharing their faith. Displayed beautifully over the Euros by Michelle Agyemang who wasn’t afraid to give thanks to God, to wear the ‘Ballers in God’ socks with a cross on them, to kneel and pray. She didn’t make it weird, she just seemed to be doing what came naturally to her.
Faith doesn’t have to be something we keep in a box. It’s in our hearts and is lived out. We can be passionate about Jesus and love football, theatre, dance, crochet, gaming… and we need to teach our children that that’s how we do life!
4. Keeping the main thing the main thing
We need to be able to hold the tension of faith and passions as parents. To raise our children to know who God is and who they are in Him. To keep the main thing the main thing and not overcomplicate things.
Read more:
It’s not all in the head - Physical activity is really important for the mental and spiritual health of youth and children
How to raise children who know they are loved by God - and you - even when they don’t “perform”
In his recommendations from Scripture Union’s research into Gen Alpha, Mark Griffiths writes: “But even if they gather outside of Sundays, they can still be seen as part of the church, and after all, the goal is the making of disciples, not filling a particular time slot.”
Our goal is to lead our children to a life of discipleship – where they explore their own faith, chose their own faith and grow in their own faith. I hope and pray that one day my own children are willing to be publicly out there for Jesus like Michelle Agyemang was. So today, I pause to think and reflect on what I need to do to help them to get there in faith. How do I help them build foundations that will last? To teach them to run the race that I too am running in. Knowing there’s nothing better and more lifegiving than following Jesus.
“And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus.” (Hebrews 12:1b-2a)1.
