More Than The Scoreনমুনা

What do you do when you have a talented child? How do you handle their success? Sometimes, we fear what’ll happen if we have to endure the rain. But, often, an equally challenging test can be how we deal with the sunshine.

The sunshine for us, as parents, comes when we see God at work in our children’s lives. We come to understand their giftings and talents. Our role is to encourage, guide, and direct them into those giftings. No, it’s not the gifts or talents of your children that make the difference. It’s the effort and attitudes your children have toward God’s blessings.

The Bible tells us that God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. It takes humility to acknowledge that we are not the source of our talents and gifts. It also takes humility to recognize we have them. We’re not humble when we say, “Oh, I have no talent.” We’re humble when we say, “Man, I’m grateful that God gave me this ability.”

I’ve seen far too many young people with talent who let it go to waste. Why? It’s often because their parents were too focused on the talent. They missed the most vital thing; where the talent came from. When we know that, we gladly combine our talents with effort, the key ingredient. 

Dear parent, if your child has a talent that goes to waste, could it be because they haven’t heard you say, “I’m glad God gave you that skill. Now, get out there and work your tail off!”

In this age of entitlement, our responsibility is to move our children in the right direction towards humility and responsibility, and away from expecting life always to hand them what they want. 

We can make two mistakes when it comes to talent in our children. First, we don’t recognize and attribute it to God. Second, we see it, but we don’t insist on them fully exploring and expanding it. Again, even that is for God’s glory, not their own.

May we parents dig in and help our children handle success in ways that honor God, build others up, and shape their influence for Him. May we be diligent in working the soil. Yes, the work is hard, but we must never give up. No matter how much rain falls or how much the sun shines. Our guiding principle here is faithfulness. Faithfulness to do the work, no matter the variables. Toiling while understanding it’s God who handles the results.