Apples of Gold Home School News

     Every now and then I like to share a resource that I have found inspirational for child rearing, particularly for the teen years when nurturing takes on different, sometimes overwhelming dimensions. I discovered You Can Be Everything God Wants You To Be to be one of those resources. It’s a little book by Max Lucado that can be read straight through in about an hour, or, as it’s divided into about a half dozen sections, and further into about 29 tiny chapters, it also makes a good book for reading in tidbits each day.

     I’m recommending the book on three levels: first, as worthwhile reading for parents guiding growing teens into discovering what God has designed them to do best; second, as a devotional for teens and young adults to help them become confident in who God made them to be, and to discover how He really wants them to use their gifts and talents; and third, as a gift book for a graduate or someone who might be uncertain about where the future is leading them.

     The point of the book is that we can discover what it is God really wants us to do with our lives. It explains that we’re to see “desires as gifts to heed, rather than longings to suppress…” Through Bible stories and life-illustrations Lucado explains the freedom we are given to explore our skills and passions. It answers the question that some feel guilty for asking, “God wouldn’t let me do what I like to do—would He?”

     God set each of us apart for a special type of work, endowing us with groupings of individual skills and talents that are totally unique in their combinations, making us who we are, and giving us each a special purpose designed by Him since before we were formed in our mother’s wombs. Whether we become missionaries, executives, or hot dog salesmen, this unique human architecture provides us with opportunity to make a big deal out of Him. Wherever we discover our “sweet spot”—that place that where our daily lives, our strengths, and God’s glory all intersect—is the place that we not only find our calling, but where we will also be the most fulfilled.

     I love this quote: “God never prefabs or mass-produces people. No slap-dash shaping.”

     While this may not be news to many who’ve realized their calling, even if it’s taken years to do so, this little book can give an oxygen-starved breath to

• a young man feeling guilty for wanting to go straight to work rather than to college

• a young lady who’d rather become a home-maker than a career woman

• a boy whose heart is on literary studies more than on taking over the family business

• the individual who feels more compelled to stand up for the downtrodden in a courtroom than on the mission field, or vice versa.

     God designed each of us so differently, yet sometimes human nature is such that we’d rather judge each other for what we think the other should be doing with their lives than for what God created them to do. A young person needs permission at times to find that sweet spot, and we as parents need to be comfortable enough to let them do it—or better yet—to help them do it. As Lucado points out in this encouraging little book, “He designed you. And His design defines your destiny.”