In this episode of MercyCast, I talk with Brian Smith and Ed Uszynski, authors of Away Game: A Christian Parent’s Guide to Navigating Youth Sports, about parenting, sports pressure, and how Christian faith shapes our engagement with youth sports.

Brian and Ed help us confront the challenges families face in today’s sports culture, especially how pressures and expectations in youth sports can redefine family dynamics and affect both parent and child identities. This conversation addresses the frustration, anxiety, and exhaustion many parents feel.

Our conversation shifts the focus of youth sports from mere achievement to discipleship, showing how every practice and game can serve as a chance to teach grace, identity in Christ, and real connection. By prioritizing relationships over results, we rediscover the true joy of sports for families.

If you’re facing the challenges of youth sports, this episode invites you to pause, reflect, and choose a better way—rooted in grace, truth, and love.

Takeaways

• Youth sports can quickly become a major source of stress for parents.
• The youth sports industrial complex creates constant pressure to perform and succeed.
• As parents, we often project our own fears and identity struggles onto our kids.
• Sports provide meaningful opportunities for discipleship and spiritual formation.
• Prioritizing enjoyment and connection helps preserve sports joy.
• Excessive pressure to perform in sports can lead to burnout in young athletes.
• Christian faith offers a countercultural vision for identity beyond wins and losses.
• Honest conversations strengthen family dynamics and trust.
• Grace-centered parenting fosters deeper, healthier relationships.
• It’s never too late to change how we show up for our kids in youth sports.
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Pick up a copy of Brian and Ed’s book, Away Game.

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Email us at info@mercycast.com.

In this fourth MoreMercy episode, we explore a truth that every one of us needs to hear: we can’t go back and erase our mistakes — but we can bring them to God, who freely redeems us. We aren’t time travelers, and we can’t rewrite the past. But we can choose what we do with our story now.

This week, we look at the hopeful and freeing reality that redemption is always better than perfection. Instead of carrying shame, replaying regrets, or trying to “fix” what already happened, we discover what it means to let God make something new out of what feels broken.

In this episode, you’ll discover:

• Why we can’t change the past — and why that’s not the point
• How God meets us in our mistakes with mercy, not condemnation
• Why redemption brings deeper healing than perfection ever could
• How to release shame and move forward in freedom
• Practical ways to bring your past to God with honesty and hope

Key Insight

Perfection demands that we never fail. Redemption promises that even our failures can be transformed.

This episode is for you if:

• You’re carrying regret or shame
• You struggle with perfectionism
• You want to understand God’s mercy in a deeper way
• You’re seeking spiritual renewal or a fresh start
• You need encouragement to let go of the past

You can follow MercyCast on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.

You can follow Raleigh on Twitter and Instagram.

In this week’s MercyCast, we continue our series on the themes that continually surface in conversations about healing, mercy, and spiritual growth. After spending the last two weeks exploring the tension of joy and pain and the experience of powerlessness, we now turn to a foundational practice of transformation: accepting reality rather than denying it.

So many of us try to push away what’s painful, ignore what’s uncomfortable, or cling to what we wish were true. But in this episode, we explore the liberating truth that real change begins with honest acceptance.

When we face reality with courage and compassion, we open the door to healing, clarity, and movement. Acceptance isn’t passivity — it’s the starting point for growth.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Why denying reality keeps us stuck
• How acceptance creates space for emotional and spiritual transformation
• Practical steps for acknowledging what’s true, even when it’s uncomfortable
• Why acceptance is an act of strength, not resignation
• How embracing truth aligns us with God’s work in our lives

Key Insight

You can’t heal what you won’t acknowledge. When you bravely name what is, you begin to move toward what can be.

This episode is for you if:

• You feel stuck and don’t know why
• You’re wrestling with painful circumstances
• You want to grow emotionally, spiritually, or relationally
• You tend to avoid conflict or uncomfortable truths
• You’re seeking a compassionate path toward healing and change

You can follow MercyCast on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.

You can follow Raleigh on Twitter and Instagram.