Wednesday Wisdom Tip: Raising World-Changers

Don't raise a good child - raise a child looking for their place to bring God's good.

 

“When God created the earth, what was His command? Be fruitful and multiply,Lysa Terkeurst pointed the Proverbs 31 Ministries staff toward a challenge this week. “When Jesus left the earth, what was His command? “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matthew 28:19 – 20″ On both of these occasions, God communicated multiplication. Lysa challenged us to multiply ourselves; to pass on what we are learning and living to others.

I think there is no place better to for us to multiply ourselves as believers and leaders than in the lives of our children. God didn’t give us this opportunity to invest in our kids to raise safe children. (If that was the case, I would be a complete failure. My kids are always trying something new … and often not all that safe.) He didn’t give us this opportunity to simply raise successful kids – financially, educationally or any other ally word.

He commanded us to make disciples; the type of disciples Jesus made.

World-changers.

From little on, Greg and I have purposed to expose our children to as many things that were different from them as we could. People of different color and race. People from different economic backgrounds and from different parts of the country. Our desire for them has been that they would appreciate all of God’s creation, not just the part that looked the same as them.

Next, we wanted them to understand their place within different; their place to love, serve and give to others. It is from this place of life-style giving, we can change our world. Sometimes that giving involved serving in the nursery at church or at an organization serving the poor of our city. Other times it meant befriending someone whose family was going through a tough time or was confused about who they were and where they fit in society. We have wanted them to not be afraid, but to step into the lives of people in faith, believing God, through them, can make all the difference.

It’s not your purpose to raise a good child who gets good grades, gets into a good college and gets a good job. Yes, these things are all … well, good! But more than that: raise your child to look for their place to bring God’s good! Raise a world-changer!

 

Mariah Cowell

 

Could I ask a favor of you? One of my “world-changers” gets on a plane tomorrow to go to Ethiopia with Storyteller Missions. Storyteller Missions is the missions department of America World Adoption, which exists as an adoption/orphan advocacy ministry that partners with international orphanages. Mariah and the team she is going with will bring supplies and the love of Jesus’ throughout orphanages and transition homes in Addis Ababa.

Mariah has been loving on little kids since she was old enough to serve in the church nursery with her dad. Would you please pray for her from August 6th – 16th? Pray that God will protect her and her team, that they will do the most good possible and that God will wreck her heart in the best possible way. I am believing she will come home and never be the same!

Thank you so much friends!

 

Lynn

4 Comments

  1. I love the phrase, “wreck her heart” in your prayer. That is a life changing moment. May God wreck mine when I pray for her. Thank you for sharing.

    1. Lynn Cowell says:

      Thank you so much, Dot! My prayer for my entire family is that God will move us to not live our lives safely, but to allow the Holy Spirit to put us in the places where we have to depend on Him. I want to be wrecked too!

  2. Ha! That’s exactly what my thought was AS I was reading the content. As soon as I read where she was going and what the purpose of the organization was, I thought “that girl is gonna be changed from THIS mission”. And then you ended the blog with “God will wreck her heart and…she will never be the same” I had that internal laugh as I knew we were linked-in-Spirit. Only through our God! I am praising Him for what he is about to do with and through Mariah! I am praising Him for what He has done through your and your husband to have raised a child who desires to walk this path! I thank Him for your encouragement and charge for us to evaluate our priorities as we are raising our children. And I pray for courage and His strength to make that shift from “good kids” to “kids who do good things for God”.

    1. Lynn Cowell says:

      Isn’t this link in His Spirit so exciting, Stacy! I’ll keep you posted on Mariah’s trip. (I hope she’ll write a post when she gets home during those couple of days before she starts her junior year of college studying social work!)

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