Playground saints 'play nice'
January 16, 2024
For the last seven years, Scott Froyen, a retired CPA who spent many years as vice president of a health insurance company, has been showing people the path to spiritual health through The Saint Builder Foundation.
Now he’s asking would-be saints to join him on the playground.
“The world is our playground. We were meant for joy. We had it as kids and somehow we lost it along the way,” said Froyen, who was inspired by observing how children were playing together one afternoon during a walk with his dogs.
“I went back to what my parents and my teachers told me when I went out to play. They told me to be good, play nice and have fun,” he explained. “It’s that simple.”
In fact, those are the three key aspects of his new initiative, Playground Saints Alive.
While The Saint Builder Foundation invites people to combat the seven deadly sins by doing the right things in the right way through God’s grace, being a playground saint takes it to the next level.
Happiness vs Joy
To “be good” means turning away from the seven deadly sins – pride, avarice, envy, wrath, lust, gluttony and sloth – and being virtuous again, according to Froyen.
People can “play nice” or “do good” by finding out what they’re good at and then helping other people. Froyen said in this way, everyone becomes their best, God-intended selves.
“If we do that, we’re going to have fun, because it is fun to strive for something that you’re interested in, that’s helping other people, that’s challenging and that’s uniting,” he said.
“It’s that simple. We just make it hard. The world makes it hard.”
And doing all of this leads to joy, which is not the same thing as happiness, said Froyen.
“Joy is unconditional. If you think about it from a Catholic perspective, it’s something we should have, right? We’re given all this, plus a savior, with the promise of eternal life,” he said. “What’s heaven? Joy.”
Happiness is more of a worldly thing and it’s conditional – if I get this or if this happens, then I’m happy. But then you raise your expectations and you’re unhappy again, Froyen said.
“I was constantly chasing happiness and that’s not what I should be chasing,” he acknowledged. “You should let joy find you.”
Challenging and fun
Froyen is establishing an online community he’s calling Playground Saints Alive. What he hopes to offer is simple, interesting, informative, entertaining and engaging content that will help people on their path to becoming saints.
He also plans to offer a daily series in Lent that will include short videos and action steps. One might be to smile at people.
“It’s just trying to do something that’s interesting, yet challenging and fun,” he said.
Froyen and Melanie, his wife of nearly 44 years, founded The Saint Builder Foundation on April 8, 2017. He retired in 2015, while she retired after working as a nurse for more than 35 years. She continues to serve as an advocate at InnerVisions HealthCare, a pro-life pregnancy resource center.
His goal is to “pick up the cross” and try to do “the next right thing and see what happens.”
Together they serve as volunteers for a variety of community and church organizations. They are members of the Basilica of St. John in Des Moines.
The Froyens find a great deal of their joy comes from being the parents of two and the grandparents of three.
To learn more about Scott Froyen and his books, “sAint Me?!” and “Playground Heaven,” his blog, and his newsletter, visit saintbuilder.com. For more on Playground Saints Alive, visit playgroundsaints.com.