It has been stated that 98 percent of people are followers; 2 percent are the shapers of culture. The 2 percent are the dreamers. One of our biggest responsibilities as parents is not only to protect our kids from culture but to help them be the shapers of culture. Not only do we need to be dreamers, but we must train our children to think like a dreamer as well.
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How do we get them to be the dreamers for their generation, inventing the gadgets, writing the songs, driving the businesses, running for political office and sitting on school boards? It starts while they are young. As moms and dads, we need to be about the business of sparking the desire and planting the seed in their heart to creatively dream when they are very, very young. Let me give you some practical ways that you can do this for your kids.
From a very young age, encourage your children to be 'others-oriented.' For example, when your kids decide to get entrepreneurial, you can encourage them to mow lawns and sell lemonade so that they can donate the money to help other people.
We can also teach them to be opportunistic. When my oldest daughter, Hannah, was 13, she had an idea that she wanted to use the Internet to help preteen girls through a Web site she wanted to create. I got a mentor to help her learn how to do a little bit of programming and she got several preteen girls on that site and ministered to them. She saw this truth: "If I have a dream, I can learn how to go about achieving it, and I can accomplish something." Show your kids how to take a vision from the idea stage to completion.
All throughout our kids' growing up years, we had a special Christmas morning tradition of going to Salvation Army to serve a meal before we would open up our gifts to send a message that Christmas is about serving, not just indulging ourselves. Inevitably, we would end up having some conversations with people who were really hurting, listening to them and praying for them.
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