It’s Madness!

Talking to your child about March Madness

Read Time: 3 min 58 sec | Reading Level: 7th Grade

─────── April 4, 2024 ───────

Happy April!
Does your family pull pranks on April Fools’ Day?

While the exact history is a mystery, some people say April Fools’ Day started in the late 1500s when France swapped up how they used their calendar. The old calendar celebrated “New Year’s” in April, but the new calendar moved New Year's to January (like we’re used to).

People who didn’t get the memo and still celebrated in April were called “April fools,” and people put paper fish (called “April fish”) on the fools' backs to symbolize that they were “easily caught.”

Seems fishy to us.

Anyway, today’s story was taken from The Pour Over’s Wednesday, April 3rd email and re-written at a 7th-grade reading level.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“It is better to try something and fail than to try nothing and succeed. The result may be the
Søren Kierkegaard

READ | REFLECT | RESPOND

SPORTS

Nothing But Net

Families around the country have been oohing and ahhing over some great March Madness basketball. 

This season, two schools — North Carolina State and UConn— will have both their men’s and women’s basketball teams playing in the Final Four. That’s a first! There are a lot of records among this year’s final teams.

The four women’s teams play tomorrow. NC State will face South Carolina, which is in the Final Four for the 4th year in a row. Then, UConn will play Iowa. Iowa is led by Caitlin Clark, who holds many records herself, including most college career points for any man or woman. UConn’s best player is Paige Bueckers, who gave a powerful interview after Monday’s game, where she shared about the difficult season her team has gone through (more on this below). 

The men’s teams play Saturday. First, 1-seed Purdue will play 11-seed NC State, which is in the Final Four for the first time since 1983 and is the lowest-seeded team to reach the Final Four. Finally, UConn (last year’s men’s champion) will play Alabama— which is in its first-ever Final Four.

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CHRISTIAN PERSPECTIVE
Sports can teach us a lot about everyday life—the value of teamwork, perseverance, and even loyalty as a fan. The commitment of athletes to their sport encourages us to press on as we seek to win an “imperishable crown” at the end of our faith journey, and the joy of fans for their team can give us a foretaste of the greatest celebration in history.

“Now everyone who competes exercises self-control in everything. They do it to receive a perishable crown, but we an imperishable crown.”
1 Corinthians 9:25 (CSB)

READ | REFLECT | RESPOND

What do I want to make sure my kids know in light of this story?
From the 11-seed NC State men’s team, we can learn that we should never give up.

For nine straight tournament games (including their conference tournament, when they won five games in five days), the NC State Wolfpack began each game saying, “If we lose today, our season is over.” And for nine straight games, they’ve won. It’s one of the most improbable runs in basketball history, and they’ll again face long odds on Saturday when they play 1-seed Purdue. 

The joy of following sports is often about seeing an underdog beat the odds to win. This team is a great reminder to not give up when we face challenging odds — you never know what might happen!

What biblical lesson can be taught through this story?
From UConn’s star player Paige Bueckers, we can learn that God is still at work even when we face adversity.

Watch this 2-minute interview from Monday night after Paige’s team advanced to the Final Four. Paige missed all of last season after she tore her ACL. This season, five of her teammates’ seasons ended due to injury. It seemed impossible that the team could recover and succeed. Paige said that it happened “to build my character” and shared, “I did all I could, so God could do all I can’t.”

James 1:2-3 says: “Consider it a great joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you experience various trials, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance.” It’s an encouraging reminder to not lose hope or faith in the midst of a trial. UConn may or may not win the championship, but that’s not the point — the point is trusting that God is with you and at work, even when life is hard.

READ | REFLECT | RESPOND

Talk as a family about lessons you’ve learned through sports or another shared family activity like games, music, or travel.

 
Memorize James 1:2-3: “Consider it a great joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you experience various trials, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance” (CSB).

Pray for the Christian athletes and coaches in the tournament that they’ll continue to set a good example for their teammates and others of what it looks like to follow Christ in everything they do.

RECOMMENDED

What Our Kids Are Doing
Devotionals and activities with The Voice of the Martyrs*

Your kids may know all about Wonder Woman’s truth lasso and Superman’s strength and speed, but how well do they know the real-life heroes of our faith?

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This Torchlighters Set is a great resource for Christian schools, homeschoolers, Sunday school classes, and family devotions.

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