Why I stopped telling my kids "God is going to use you for something GREAT on day"... and started telling them something better.

As I drove my boys to school today listening to “Wild at Heart”, something dawned on me:  I NEED TO STOP TELLING MY BOYS THAT “GOD IS GOING TO DO SOMETHING GREAT WITH THEIR LIVES ONE DAY”.  

Hear me out. 

You’ve probably been told the same thing.  Our mommas tell us this.  Our grandmas tell us this.  Our bestie tells us this when we’re heartbroken over some major disappointment.  “Don’t worry, God is going to use you to do great things one day!” 

But, when exactly is “one day”?  

Have you ever found it?  

Who has discovered where “one-day” hangs out on the calendar?   Is there a switch that is flipped in my lives where we suddenly hit the “great thing” God plans to do with me?   Does it hit in January at the refreshing of THIS New Year (because surely THIS ONE will be different)?  Is it when I turn 30 and finally have some wits about me and can finally be taken seriously?  Maybe it’s when I graduate college and get to finally “change the world” with my knowledge.  

I don’t know about you, but I have waited my whole life, working tirelessly toward that mysterious “one day”, thinking each achievement I pursued would finally put me over the threshold, only to find the same sense of insufficiency and impostering waiting for me when I woke up the next morning.  

What gives? 

You see, we tell our kids that they will be great or do great things one day, because WE were told this, and because we genuinely believe it!   Like every good mother (or father) before us,we are simply hoping to inspire them into greatness… hoping to teach them that they’re important, and will make an impact in the world.    

But is it possible that we are programmed to have such anticipation for tomorrow that we unintentionally discredit today?

Unfortunately, simultaneously embedded in the “one day” promise to our kids, is the insinuation that today doesn’t count.  

That today they’re just a messy kid, trying to figure it out.  That today, they get disciplined and corrected and don’t quite have their stuff together, but ONE day, they’ll be GOOD ENOUGH, SMART ENOUGH and BRAVE ENOUGH make a difference.  

Because of course messy, imperfect, foolish humans don’t do great things, right?

From where I stand looking back in history, every person who made a mark did so AMIDST their character flaws, their lack of knowledge, or they demonstrated courage even though they were scared to pieces. 

No.  You see, there is no “one-day” that will arrive in our ungraspable future, because GREATNESS is only ever found in TODAY and how faithful I am with it.

“One-day” is made up of a lot of little “today’s”.  

“Greatness” that marks history is actually made up of the “today’s” where I chose to show up… to be selfless; where I chose to work hard.  Where I chose to help someone even though I didn’t feel like it.  Where I chose to do it scared and faith-my-way through the challenge.  

GREATNESS happens EVERY DAY in EVERY LITTLE WAY that builds me into a great person.

Are there pivotal moments that come in life and can shift everything?  Yes, there are.  

But even then, we rarely recognize those moments until they are passed.  And if we do see them for the weight they carry, rarely do we see them as the moments of “greatness” we were called to.  They often show up as the scariest moments of our lives that we tremble through.  They feel like another “today” with big challenges to be overcome.  Even Esther who was “made for such a time as this”, had to be told by someone else that her “today” was in front of her, becoming a doorway to her greatness.  Even she didn’t recognize her own opportunity for making history without the help of her Uncle Mordecai.

So I decided as I drove home from dropping off my boys, that I’m changing what I’m telling them. I’m going to now tell them, 

“GOD IS GOING TO DO GREAT THINGS WITH YOU TODAY.  YOU ARE ENOUGH TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE TODAY.  DON’T MISS THE TINY MOMENTS THAT PAVE THE WAY TO YOUR GREATNESS”  

Why can I say this?  

Because tomorrow isn’t promised.  

Because throughout scripture, I see God talk more about today, than about tomorrow.  In fact, he advises us not to worry about tomorrow (Mt. 6:34), and not to count on tomorrow (Proverbs 27:1, James 4:13-15). 

James 4:13-15 “Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”

In fact, we see this principle of greatness being cloaked in today’s simplicity in Deuteronomy 28:1 “If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations on earth.”

Tomorrow’s promise of greatness should never undermine today’s sense of purpose.  

Does God make promises for our lives?  Yes, but they’re never meant to invalidate today, they’re meant to infuse “today” with hope & purpose. 

His promises are intended to cause us to SEIZE TODAY AS OUR DIVINE PATHWAY TO DESTINY.

So, I challenge you.  Tell your children, your bestie, or the stranger at the grocery store, God DOES plan to do great things with their lives.  But they don’t have to wait for tomorrow to make a difference.  

Tell them instead, “GOD IS GOING TO DO GREAT THINGS WITH YOUR LIFE TODAY”.  And watch them rise to their greatness before your very eyes.