My Mother used to use this phrase to describe someone, and I have found myself using it as well. "Well, they are just 'eat up' with it!" It means to be consumed, to only be focused on that one thing, unable to see any other way, any other side, any other point of view.....EAT UP!!
It seems that parents today are 'eat up' with their children's sports. Sports are no longer fun, or a way to stay active, stay in shape, and just enjoy. Don't take my word for it, walk onto a ball field. You will see parents camped out underneath a canopy, generators humming, coolers full, matching chairs, matching gear, canvas banners in full color pictures of the team hanging on the fence.....crazy, I tell you! They come in, often having to book a hotel because they are not just playing at the hometown recreation field any longer....set up camp and are ready at sunrise Saturday morning...ready to be there until well after sunset Sunday night! The kids are giving it all they've got! You would think this is for the big paycheck.....but no....these kids are only 5, maybe 6 years old, but this contiues on up to their teen years. They are being pushed, even farmed out like millions of dollars are at stake. What happened? When did this snowball get rolled so far downhill that no one can get out of it's way???
Parents don't like how they are being treated....little Johnny isn't getting the play time he deserves...so they go out shopping...on line and word of mouth....for a new team. There is so much trading going on that the pro scouts' heads would spin!! It has become the parent's religion....their life! They are consumed.....they are EAT UP with it! It's cut throat....and you better keep up, or you will be chewed up and spit out!
Kids are resilient. They can roll with a lot of punches. They don't know any better. They have 100% trust in their parents. These parents are failing them. I am in no way saying sports are wrong. I LOVE sports. But there has to be the correct balance, as with anything in life. Parents have let this get so big, have let themselves get so caught up....they are trying to 'one up' the Jones', or trying to live vicariously through their children......to the point that the kids are the ones who are suffering! There are more injuries that you never heard of in children nowadays. They are getting so burned out, they don't want to play any sport any longer....and what does that leave for your children to then get into in their free time?? We put them in sports to keep them making right choices...but now it is turning into just another driving force to push the kid into bad choices.
I Timothy 4:1, ' Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from he faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils..' Hebrews 3:12, 'Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God." Jesus Himself says in Revelation 2:4,5: "Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Remember therefore from whence thou are fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.' Lastly....let this scripture really sink in... II Peter 2:20-22, "For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, the dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire."
My thought is this.....have fun.....Let. Your. Kid. Have. Fun. ....Let ball be in the right place and not take over. Stop this circus! What would happen if parents camped out at churches.....set up the canopy, the generator, the coolers...willing to sacrifice the whole weekend...E-v-e-r-y weekend, for church?? What would this world be like if parents fought to give the best relationship with Christ for their child?? What if parents were EAT UP about serving the Lord???
God help us. God help this country and what it has become. We have gotten 'eat up' with this world. And sad to say....because we have gotten so 'eat up'......our future generations are just simply......FED UP.
