Encouraging Our Children

Are you guilty of telling your children, "You can be anything you want to be"? I know I have said this many times over the years. It's a statement that can give hope to a child that he or she can do anything they choose to do. It's meant well. But really it isn't true. We all have specific gifts and personalities, but none of us has the anything gift. Encouraging our children in this way could set them up for failure in the future. Failure only because it isn't something the God would lead them to do. Jeremiah 29:11 states, "For I know the plans I have for you, says the LORD. They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope."

He made our children the way He wanted before they were born, and He planned out what He wanted them to do even before they were born. We do not get to choose what gifts our children will have, God does. He gives different gifts and in different amounts. God expects the gifts He gives to be used. So now I have purposed to say "You can be anything God wants you to be." Because that is true. It keeps a God-focused future in front of them instead of a self-determined one.

Visit The Time-Warp Wife for many more encouraging posts on parenting, marriage, and being a homekeeper.