(when bringing up our children.....)- The Wojcicki sisters - one is an epidemiologist, another the CEO of Youtube and the third the CEO of a genetics company.
- The Simmon brothers - one a rapper and reality star, another a painter and philanthropist, another a co-founder and hip-hop mogul.
In other words, success = someone who is either clever, famous,
powerful, wealthy or gifted. This is how the world evaluates success and this
view so easily invades and shapes the mindset of Christians.
What's missing?
What is missing from this worldly definition of success is everything
that a follower of Jesus regards as most important and precious. Character (and
especially Christlike characteristics such as servanthood) is missing, and
faith in Christ which leads to salvation and eternal hope is missing.
What matters to a Christian parent, towering above all other matters,
is that our children come to know the Lord Jesus Christ whom to know is eternal
life. We then want our children to walk faithfully with God all their lives,
using the gifts he has given them, all the while storing up treasure in heaven.
If their calling is to sweep the streets or sweep into power, it makes no
difference to us: we prefer a converted street sweeper as a son than a pagan
president.
The qualities TIME regards as giving a child "extraordinary
success" are actually rather unimportant, for all of them are passing and
ephemeral.
Christmas letters
Over the last 30 years I have taken special note of the annual
Christmas letters we recieve from Christians and sad it is to say, we
Christians are just like the world. We boast about the earthly achievements of
our children and hardly even mention spiritual qualities and characters.
Daily polutted by the values of the world we need a regular cleansing
and renewing of our minds and attitudes and priorities, so that we can train
our children in the things that really matter and guide their feet into true
greatness.
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