One of the things I have always heard growing up in church is the devil can’t see our future but he does sense potential.
We recognize that the enemy of our soul is out to derail us from our God ordained destiny. He has been doing this for years. If you have been a christian for any amount of time or just a casual watcher of TBN you have seen your fair share of destroyed destiny.
As a kids pastor and parent one thing I think we need to do a better job of is sensing potential in our own kids and the kids that come to our weekend experiences each week.
How can we do this?
1. In your own kids: Recognize the area of weakness in your child that the enemy would love to exploit. Make your child aware of it and how to avoid basic pitfalls. For instance if your child is compassionate teach your child how to care for others and help give them skills to guard their hart from the cynicism that would crush that God given gift of compassion.
2. Kids at church: Do you have a farm system? In baseball they put young players in small towns on teams with less talent so they can grow in their gifting. All of our youth band and much of our Adult band started playing worship in our kids church.
3. Kids at church: Kids pastor are you a good talent scout. One thing we must get better at is recognizing strength and creating a venue for kids to use that strength to build the local church. When kids go to school and are recognized for their abilities in the arts but we at church say the arts are not welcome. What kind of message is that. I grew up loving the arts the only place where I could express myself was in kids church. I joined a puppet team because someone saw potential. Kids pastors ask the Holy Spirit to help you recognize potential it will change your ministry.
4. In your own kids: Parents find out what your kids are good at beyond just sports. I study my boys and watch them play, interact and respond. I want to be able to strengthen their weakness and to grow in their strengths. I want them to understand that school learning, sports and plays are great but temporal the kingdom of God is eternal. You need to learn to use those gifts to build the kingdom of God.
Start today look for potential world changers sitting in your sunday school class, small group or dinner table because even if you are not looking the devil is.