Ask Me In 40 Years if This Worked

I’m experimenting with my kids. I know we’re probably not supposed to do that, but I’m trying to be intentional about one specific phrase I say to them on a daily basis. The original idea came from another preacher who spoke about the power of a phrase his father spoke into him for years and years. The application was simple: repeat one phrase often enough to your children and it will become the defining phrase of their childhood.

Now I’m an optimist by nature. If I’m going to do anything, I’m going to go big. I shoot for the moon. So about a year ago I decided on a phrase that I now speak daily to my kids. Usually it’s the last thing they hear before they go to bed. My youngest ones are too young to understand it. My 7-year-old knows it by heart. When I start to say it, he says, “Yeah, yeah dad, I know . . . .” I introduced Zeke (my 7-year-old) to one of the adoption workers that helped bring him to us, and I said, “Zeke, tell Mrs. Nancy what I always tell you.” Zeke immediately referenced my phrase and repeated it to her.

What’s the phrase I speak daily to them? “God’s going to use you to change the world.” Optimistic, I know. A little over the top, I know. But here’s the experiment: I want to pump vision and a grand vision of God (and their purpose in life) into them until it oozes out of their pores. I want them to grow up with the given that God is going to use them to do big things. Change the world, even.

Then I’m going to sit back and watch. See if that holy confidence propels them anywhere in life. If their life turns out like everyone else’s, then I guess I wasted some words. But if their life soars, if they grab hold of a greater vision for what God wants to do through them and if they leave a footprint behind when they depart this world, then it will have been worth it.

Who knows? Ask me in 40 years if it worked.

QUESTION: What word are you speaking into your children?