Carrots and Goals

To my children:
The older you get the more intelligent, crafty, and agile you may become.  In doing so, you will become a valuable asset to others.  Some may seek to aid you in your knowledge base, and others may seek to plug you in somewhere to help them achieve something they are striving for.  This is not necessarily wrong.  Having discernment in these situations is very important.  It is very easy for some dream to become your target when you had not planned on it for yourself.

In school, one good goal would be to make straight A's or be on the honor roll.   Some students couldn't care less while others set aside friendships, sports, and God to accomplish that goal.  If and when it is attained, you may be granted a scholarship to a college.  This trend may repeat for college.

As an athlete in high school, apply yourself to your tasks.  Train as you should, practice your shooting, passing, etc.  Excel here too, and seek to improve at a faster rate than others, but don't get lost here.

In your first job, you will start out doing meanial tasks.  Excel here.  Make no mistake, do your best.  Once you beat the curve or the standard path taken by others, you will be noticed.  Managers will quickly realize your potential and want you on their team.  This is not wrong either.  Grow, and apply yourself, but don't get lost.

As a mother, it may be necessary to prepare your home, take care of children, or make big decisions for the household.  All of these tasks are necessary and proper.  Excell here.  Be a wonderful support system for your husband, and a leader for him when he needs a break or has faltered.

In a few years of breaking through new barriers like these, I have noticed a trend that you should know before you excel as I know you will.

Don't let a good thing blur your focus.  Don't let getting straight A's cloud your judgment on your priorities.  Don't let being a good athlete and having to practice often take over your life.  Don't let a good first job or second job opportunity take you down a road you didn't know you were going.  Don't let being a spouse drag you away from the very spouse you married.

These are not easy to do.  Why?  Most things in life start out as good.  Good intentions, good plans, good bosses/coaches/managers, but focus gets blurred.

Don't ever forget our catechism.  What is the chief end of man?  The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.

This is what gets compromised in each of the scenarios above.  A good job provides for your family, helps you establish a 401(k), enables networking with other professionals, but taken too far can compromise your devotion to your God.  If this happens, your job has no value any more.  Straight A's is excellent, and is something that many people can't do, but if you focus entirely on how others grade your work and your behavior, you may find yourself later in life on concerned about others, and not your true purpose.  As your father, I have many responsibilities to provide for you, teach you, allow you to enjoy being a child, but if I focus my fatherhood only on this for you, I am not meeting the requirements of our God, and ultimately fail even though I may have provided every earthly opportunity a father can provide for his child. 

Some of this happens as a result of the general pull of the world.  In 1 Peter 5:8, the Bible explains why the world has a "general pull."  Don't be mistaken, the Devil himself is attacking you in small and large ways to keep you from glorifying God and enjoying Him forever.  He doesn't want you to enjoy anything but the world. 

Some of the good things like having a job, or being an athlete can pull at you in other ways, and may be intentional.  At your job, it will be very difficult to turn down more money.  If you boss wants to keep you around, and knows that you are very good at what you do, He wants to keep you on his team in order to make him more money.  This is the point where you get a raise.  I'm not saying they are bad, but money has a general pull away from God.  The more money you have, the less you will rely on God, and the less you rely on God, the less you glorify Him.  You fail for lack of focus.  Money blurs your vision of who God is and why He granted you life.  Sports has a natural pull.  Imagine you are pretty good at volleyball, soccer, or basketball.  With just a little more practice, your coach may tell you, you could really excell in your game.  You might be the next point guard, captain, or leader of the team.  These are all good things, but be wary.

The Devil uses these good things to cause people to stray.

You can't avoid all these situations.  You will have others.  As you progress in your life, remember who granted life to you, who protects you, and who saved you.  One way to do this is to remember that in 2 Timothy 3:16, God Himself tells you that all Scripture is breathed out by God.  All of the Bible is from the God of the universe, and was given to you so that you would read and know who He is.  It is in knowing who He is that you can protect yourself from the carrots of the world.  Immerse yourself into the Bible.  Without His Word to you, how would you know anything?  How could you make decisions on what paths to take?

Don't blindly trust anyone.  Don't just listen to what I say, read the Bible for yourself.  Use your Bible to help you discern error.  Ask God to help guide you to himself.

I love each of you more than I can describe, and want you to follow Yahweh until the last day.  Glorify Him in every decision, and you'll never want to look back.