Jason Sneed Parenting Essentials

The Trinity of True Greatness

raising-kidsIn his book Raising Kids for True Greatness, Dr. Tim Kimmel says that a person can be successful without coming close to being truly great. And wouldn’t we all as parents rather aim our children toward true greatness. Dr. Kimmel defines true greatness as a passionate love for God that demonstrates itself in an unquenchable love and concern for others.

“True greatness takes on a life of its own when it is applied to the three biggest challenges our children must face. For the record, there are three primary questions your children need to answer in order to enjoy an effective adult life. If they answer these three questions correctly, they will be able to leave a powerful and lasting legacy for many generations to come.”

Question 1: What is my mission in life going to be?

Question 2: Who is my mate going to be?

Question 3: Who is my mater going to be?

Kimmel says you can ask these questions another way. What am I going to do with my life? Who will I spend my life with? And who will I live it for?

Here’s what makes aiming your children at true greatness so compelling: their ability to answer these three questions properly almost becomes a forgone conclusion. When you’re consistently pointing your kids toward greatness, it’s difficult for them to mess up these three profound dimensions of their lives.

What do you think of these questions? I would love to hear your comments!

“The greatest rewards that earth has to offer pale in comparison to the minimum that a life of true greatness has to give” – Dr. Tim Kimmel

Jason Sneed Parenting Essentials

The Success Illusion – Raise Kids for True Greatness

success
How do you define success?

Webster’s Dictionary defines success as the following:

  • the fact of getting or achieving wealth, respect, or fame

  • the correct or desired result of an attempt

  • someone or something that is successful : a person or thing that succeeds

As we continue in this series of post about the book “Raising Kids for True Greatness”, we need to understand how the world defines success. Dr. Kimmel writes,

We live in a day when success is defined by looks, IQ, strategic alliances, titles, and world records. Success is supposed to attract people’s attention and put you in a superior position in the human pecking order. And it is the natural desire average parents have for their children.

It’s easy to see that parenting can become preoccupied with crowding a child’s academic, athletic, and social resume with the accolades that count most in our culture but don’t have any bearing on eternity.

This world has said that our children have to be the…smartest, fastest, prettiest, best connected, most popular, best outfitted, best rewarded and most confident.

Everywhere we turn and just about everything we hear people say reminds us that we should be raising kids who primary goal is to post high marks and great statistic. To them, life is about success that can be quantified in degrees or dollar signs.

Dr. Kimmel goes on to talk about 5 “anchor tenets” of the success illusion:

Fame

Without even trying, parents can unwittingly format their children to need the empty praise of fame by orchestrating their lives so that they can become popular among their young peer groups. There’s a fine line between encouraging our children to excel and pushing them to achieve the public’s attention in the process

Power

True greatness does not have power as its goal, but it often gains power by default.

Health & Beauty

The problem comes when we deify and worship health and beauty. This happens when our view of ourselves doesn’t come from our relationship with God but from the way we fit into our clothes and the images looking back at us in the mirror each morning.

Wealth

Money is so important to many parents that it is not uncommon for a mom or dad to push a child to pursue a certain vocation simply because of its income potential. Whether the child has an aptitude for it, or even enjoys it, is irrelevant. The important thing is that he spends his adult life doing something that pays well.

We must be careful to avoid equating wealth with greatness. They are NOT the same!

Parents, let strive to raise our children with a passionate love for God that demonstrates itself in an unquenchable love and concern for others. Let’s not let the world determine what is success in the lives of our children. Let’s look to God’s Word for guidance and direction for their lives.

Matthew 20:25-28 – “Whoever wants to become great among you must serve the rest of you like a servant. Whoever wants to become first among you must serve the rest of you like a slave. In the same way, the Son of Man did not come to be served. He came to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many people”

Jason Sneed Parenting Essentials, Quotes From My Reading

Raising Kids For TRUE Greatness – Part I

Quotes from my readings banner

So what is TRUE greatness?

You can ask 10 people this questions and receive 10 different answers back in return.

I just got finished reading a book entitled Raising Kids for TRUE Greatness by Dr. Tim Kimmel. Dr. Kimmel is the founder of Family Matters Ministries and is a Bryan College graduate. He is an award-winning author of Grace Based Parenting, Why Christian Kids Rebel & Little House on the Freeway. 

Kimmel begins the book by say,

A person can be successful without coming close to being truly great. And wouldn’t we all rather aim our children toward true greatness?

I believe that every parent would want their children to be truly great! The problem is that people have looked to the world to gain their definition of success instead of looking into God’s Word. The world defines success by the following:

  • Fame
  • Power
  • Health & Beauty
  • Wealth

By the world’s standards, if you have these things, then you are successful. It does not matter the cost or what it takes to get there. But this is so contrary to what God’s Word teaches us. Dr. Kimmel explains that “according to Jesus, if we want our kids to be truly great, we must first teach them to be servants.”

Matthew 20:25-28 says, “But Jesus called them to him and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

God’s goals for our children often run counter to the default mode of the human heart.

Dr. Kimmel’s definition of TRUE greatness is this:

TRUE greatness is a passionate love for God that demonstrates itself in an unquenchable love and concern for others.

Sounds a whole lot like the two greatest commandments – doesn’t it!?!

Why do we dream such small dreams & expect so little from our children? Why do we assume that we have such limited capabilities as parents? Why do we assume that great people have to be the exception rather than the rule when it comes to our efforts as parents? Why don’t we think that our children can ever take rank among the truly great? Worse, why do we sell God’s bigger plan for our lives so short?

It makes so much more sense to raise your kids to live faithful and effective lives on earth and then leave the breadth of their success up to God.

Be watching for more blog post about Raising Kids for TRUE Greatness!

I would like to invite you to join Mickey Rector & myself for Parenting Essentials on Facebook LIVE every Wednesday at 12 noon. Parenting Essentials is a broadcast filled with practical advice to help parents train and disciple their children. Visit the Mile Straight Baptist Facebook page to watch!

Jason Sneed Parenting Essentials

Parenting Essentials

Parenting Essentials - Jason's Blog

Several months ago, my friend Mickey Rector & I started talking about parenting! We were trying to figure out ways of getting parenting resources into the hands of the parents at our church. (For those that don’t know, I serve as Children’s Pastor & Mickey serves as the Student Pastor) We began to brainstorm and finally landing on a way to provide these resources.

Parenting Essentials was born! Parenting Essentials is a weekly periscope where Mickey & I talk about different topics concerning parenting. (You can watch the first sessions here) Over the first few weeks, we have talked about the following:

  • Affirming your children
  • Being authentic with your children
  • Praying for your children
  • And casting a vision for your children

We understand that it is the parents responsibility to train their children by God’s Word. Deuteronomy 6: 4-9 says:

4″Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

Because we DO understand these verses, we want to help come alongside parents and train them & provide the resources necessary to raise children that love God.

I invite you to join us every Tuesday at 12 noon on Periscope. You can download the periscope app here. Once it is downloaded, be sure and search for Mile Straight and then follow.

Did I tell you we give away gift cards for those who participate? I guess you will just have to watch to find out!