God Has a Dream

In our Adult Sunday School Class we are going through some awesome parenting material called Effective Parenting in a Defective World. Every week it is better than the week before and every week I think it can't get any better.


Today's lesson covered a lot of material and I would not possibly be able to do it justice by simply hitting the highlights on this blog. There is only one point I want to blog about, and I'm blogging about it for me. I don't want to forget it. Simply put, God has a dream for your child. God, the creator of the universe, gave us the unique privilege of bringing a life made in His very image into this world, not for our own purposes but for His. What is so significant about this is the fact that every parent I know has their own dreams for their child, me included. There is nothing wrong with us having dreams for our children, but as good as our dreams are for our children, God's are even better! I don't think the point is to stop dreaming for our children; I'm sure it is natural and healthy to dream for our children. As a matter of fact, Proverbs tells us to "train up a child in the way he should go," literally meaning to study our children and discover what their unique talents and gifts are so we can help them to discover the unique path and purpose (the dream) God has for their life. But notice, we are not to create the path!

I heard a pastor say that as he has discovered positive character traits in each of his children, he will affirm them by saying something like, "You are so compassionate with your friends and siblings. One day, you might enjoy being a nurse." My friend Tracy just told me last week that her daughter, Jenny, was at school and they split up into teams for a science experiment. Her daughter's job was to take notes for the group. Her teacher pulled her aside after science and complimented her note taking and took it one little step further by affirming her with just a few words: "You might be a scientist one day!"

Tracy said ever since that statement, Jenny had asked for help to further research the subject they were studying in Science. She found websites on the internet and continued to take pages and pages of notes. She believed what her teacher told her and it opened up a world of possibilities for her. On the flip side, we should be careful to remember what our words can do to tear down our children and squash their dreams.

Discovering the path, or God's dream, requires one thing above all else: a real and personal RELATIONSHIP with each of our children. We learned yesterday in our Sunday School class that we cannot underestimate the influence of our relationship with our children. More than all the activities and lessons and school success and summer camps, and all the other "stuff" we all do for our kids, the relationship we have with kids is what can determine their success in life. Of course, success can be defined many different ways in today's world, but for the Christian, it should have much to do with our child being healthy and whole, both spiritually and emotionally, as an adult.


This one point was very convicting to me. The challenge is to apply this truth by carefully examining the way we spend our time as a family to determine why we are pursuing the things we are pursuing by asking myself are these my dreams for my girls or God's dreams for my girls?