Raising up determination

Have you been blessed with a child that has a strong determination? Or maybe you are a leader blessed by leading people that have a strong determination breathing in them?

Personally I have a daughter that is VERY determent in many things. I don’t know about you, but quite often it doesn't feel like a blessing to me at all. It can be very challenging or even difficult for me to deal with. But the fact of the matter is that it IS a blessing to have determination in you. We need it in the simple things in life like getting up in the morning, even when we don’t feel like it. Going to work, school or appointments. But also when there are dreams that God has put in us that needs determination to make it come to pass. Many of the successful and influential people will tell you that their success did not knock at the door and there it was. No, they had to work hard and make many sacrifices and try over and over again to get to where they are now. It took determination to get there.

So, it is a very important aspect of our lifes, and we as parents or leaders have the difficult task to give these people tools to tame and train this part of their character. For instance, determination without patience will turn into frustration. Likewise is determination with no goal attached to it, a very dangerous combination. You can compare it with a forest fire; it has no focus or boundary so it will release its drive to anything it can crab a hold on. To gain control over it we have the tendency to suppress it. This is not a healthy solution because our character is who we are, it is a part of us. We feel incomplete when we cannot be who God made us to be. Fire itself can be of good use, fire out of control is dangerous.

I strongly feel that God is warning us that we have to stop trying to put the fire out of the determination. But also that it needs to be tamed, trained and go through a period of boot camp, for we are in a race and we need perseverance to get to the finish line.

“(…) and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before Him He endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Hebrews 12:1-2

Our job as parents and leaders is to help the people that have a strong determination in them, to find out what their goal is. What is it that God has put in them that needs this fire to get it to the level where God has intended it to come? I believe that when we start doing this early on in children’s lifes, we will see shifts coming in their behavior and also prepare them to walk into their God given destiny.

Every time Bill Johnson took his children to bed, he said the following to them:

“Remember, you are part of a team that is here to change the world. When you go to sleep tonight, ask God if there is anything that is impossible that He wants you to do.”

God will do the impossible through us, but it needs the fire of our determination to actually get to that point…now, in this age to come, more than ever.

“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Philippians 4:13