For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge,

and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness,

and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.

For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

II Peter 1:5-8, ESV

 

It's been almost a quarter of a century now, but sometime around the year 2,000, the boy's and girl's basketball coaches out our High School came to me and a few others with an unusual request: Would we begin a program to teach our elementary school children the fundamentals of basketball? The program they had in mind was one that would teach little kids the basics - such as the proper use of the pivot foot and ball handling skills. Their thought was if kids could be taught the fundamentals when they were young that these skills would assist them to be that much better of players when they got older.

 

Now this seemed like a great idea, but one that would be time consuming and require a great deal of thought and preparation. We who were approached with this idea jumped at this unusual chance all the same,  because it provided an important foundation for the kids to build on that would later to prove great benefits as the kids moved into Junior High and High School. I've mentioned twice that the request was unusual because it is rare for High School coaches to have the foresight to build a program for something in the future that they might not even reap the benefits of. This turned out to be true in this case because, as is so common in the world of basketball coaches, they had moved onto larger schools with greater opportunities for they and their families long before these grade schoolers were old enough to play for the High School team.

 

But the foresight of these two coaches (Gary and Jacinda) proved to pay great benefits for the basketball program they left behind. Several of these teams advanced to the state basketball tournament - a great accomplishment for a state as large as Texas! There were many reasons for their doing so, such as excellent High School coaches and the obvious natural talents of the kids, but it also had a lot to do with these two coaches' ability to see far enough into the future to understand that teaching athletes the fundamentals when they were young, would pay great dividends in the future.

 

It is a bit of a sad, sidenote to me that the school has discontinued this program in recent years. As it turns out, some of the other schools in the district had complaints that the half-time performances that the kids put on to display their newly acquired skills in fundamentals to the hometown fans was adding as much as four or five minutes to the High School games. And as we all know, time is valuable, so the program was scrapped. 

 

I wonder, now, what our future basketball teams will look like. The last of the kids who were in the program for seven years as grade schoolers will be seniors next year, After that, each successive graduating class will have been in the fundamentals program for one year less, until in a few years there will be none left that had even one year of such training. Now, I'm not saying for a moment that this will make all of the difference, for the year before this program was begun was actually a year in which the boy's team went to "State" for the first time in the school's eighty year history. 

 

But, I believe it will make some difference, because I have noticed through the years that teaching our kids the fundamentals when they are young has a way of accruing tremendous benefits when they are older. And, of course, it's the same way on a far more important scale with our kids when it comes to their service to God. This is why it is so important for we parents to make sure that our children are learning the fundamentals of faith while they are still young.

 

God knew. He saw the vital nature of adding to our precious faith the important elements of things like knowledge and virtue and love. By doing so, we would be helping our kids to become adults who would be more effective in their service to their Lord and Savior. 

 

But, as we all are well too aware, this does not always happen when we are young. Perhaps you were not blessed with parents who had the foresight to teach you these fundamentals when you were younger. Maybe you were a bit like me and the lessons just didn't take. Whatever the case, it is important for us to understand two things: First, it is not too late to start, even though you will have the handicap of not having these fundamentals of faith during your formative years. Second, since it is not too late, you must indeed start. It's too important for you to fail in this quest to grow in your faith - certainly, because it is commanded, but also because of this fact given at the end of the passage we started with above:

 

For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted and blind, having forgotten that he has been cleansed from his former sins. Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election,

for if you practice these qualities you will never fall.

for in this way there will be  richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

II Peter 1:9-11, ESV

 

Who knew that fundamentals could be so important? Who, indeed, but God!