Olympic Purpose
I always forget how emotional the Olympics can be until they come around again with all those stories of personal commitment, hard work, and overcoming to get to the games and compete well. And parents often play a major role in those stories.
I don’t know about you, but those P&G commercials really nailed me as a parent (even though I’m not a mom). Part of the reason they’re so effective is that they have everything to do with that idea of purpose—fulfilling our purpose as parents and giving our kids big goals to aspire to.
Representing the God of purpose on earth, Jesus was a great leader, in part, because He helped His followers to see the vital role they could play as people of God. Remember this from Matthew 5:13-16?
“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.
“You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.”
Jesus paints both the joy of victoriously fulfilling our purpose as God’s salt and light on earth—and the agony of realizing we’ve squandered our potential to point people to the Father.
Part of our job as parents is to help our kids find and fulfill their talents and abilities—like figure skating, say—but also to find their ultimate purpose as followers of Christ. As they begin to walk after Him for God’s glory, we can truly tell them that they’ll never walk alone.
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