Finding your Purpose

Something I heard last week has been really resonating with me. Before I share, I would like to give you a little backstory on my upbringing: I was raised in a low income home located down the street from government housing. Neither of my parents have a fancy four year degree or cars that run well. I grew up in a family where dropping out of school to have a child was far more common than graduating and getting a good job. 

Despite these all this, I have an amazing mother who constantly told me that anything I wanted was within my grasp if I worked hard enough for it. As a result, here I am, the first in my family with a four year degree, a good job, and a head on pretty straight.

Having that ingrained in my memory, I sat down to hear Perry Noble (a rather well-known Christian speaker) share. The bottom line of his talk centered on the fact that we should not tell children that they can be anything they want to be when they grow up. 

Obviously, this got mixed reactions from those in the stands beside me.

He used the example of a person who cannot sing. He insisted that this person should NOT be told that with enough practice, they will one day grow to win American Idol or be signed to RCA.  It’s just not going to happen. He insisted that in the American culture, we do this to our children. We tell them that they just need more practice or that Simon Cowell is just too mean as opposed to the truth - they stink!

We insist on telling children that the sky is the limit instead of the truth: that they were designed by God with a purpose. 

This has really gotten my brain moving this week, as I hope it does yours. As much as we should encourage our children to try everything, we need to guide them that to find the thing that they are both passionate about AND gifted at. This is our calling.