I was shopping with my 13 year old niece on Saturday and I asked her, “What do you want to study when you go to college?”
She shrugged her shoulders, “I don’t know. Everyone asks me that question.”
I attempted to cover my faux pas by telling her how I had studied psychology and for the first time in my life I was finally working in a field that required that degree. But I knew I had missed it.
That was weighing on me as I prepared for the teen Bible study I lead on Sunday nights. I had already selected the Bible reading plan for them for this week and was reviewing it. As I did the lightbulb when off in my head.
I don’t ask adults what they will be doing in six years or ten years. And I certainly don’t put pressure on a 55 year old about how they will spend their retirement. Yet, it is socially acceptable to ask a child what they will do when they grow up. I actually believed I was being thoughtful by asking what she would study in college. Thoughtful or not, I missed it.
You see, when we ask teens what they want to be when they grow up or what they want to study in college we put an emphasis on their future and in so doing discount their present.
As we closed Bible study Sunday night, I hinted at what this week’s reading plan would look like and how I was wrong to ask a 13 year old to tell me her life’s direction. I went on to say that God has a specific purpose for them right now, not when they are an adult. According to Ephesians 2:10, God has good works for us to do every day (LNT-Louise Nichols Translation).
Do you know that each one of those kids nodded their head in agreement? These kids were hungry to hear their lives today matter as much as their future life.
I made a pledge to them that I will not ask a kid that question ever again. Now, if they are heading off to college, then I’ll ask it, but not to an eighth grader or a sophomore in high school. I’m asking you to join me.
Let’s fan the flame of what God is doing in their lives right now. Let’s look for opportunities to remind them that God has a purpose for them today, good things that He prepared in advance for them to do.
That brings me to you and me. Are you thinking that there is something bigger for you to do than what you are doing today? Do you look at your life and think, is there more?
There might be something great in the next year or ten years. But what is God’s purpose for you today? Allow me to encourage you to take a moment and reflect on where you are in your life right now. Look at the people in your sphere of influence. Take an inventory of the lives you have the privilege of impacting on a daily basis.
“Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” Galatians 6:9
Stay the course. Do the thing you have before you. Remain faithful. The big thing will come when it’s time. Ironically, in ten years, you may look back at today and realize today is the big thing.
Feel free to join along in our reading plan.
As you read these verses this week, ask the Father what He wants you to do each day, not next year or in the next decade, but TODAY.
