It is easy to be lulled into thinking we are doing great job or a good enough job as we rush around with our busy lives. As Christian mum's we often think that our goal is to train our children to become 'good' well behaved kids who will grow into responsible adults. Our prayers are that God will graciously draw our dear children to Him in the first place, that they would be helped with difficulties etc. But today I was really challenged....In this race of life, I have forgotten my former vision! I have lowered the hurdles and forgotten my true vision! Yes, training 'good kids' is not good enough! We should be training our children to such excellence that they will be good and strong, passionate and compassionate 'missionaries' wherever they are called to be used of God. We need to raise the hurdle in our own lives and in the lives of our children. As coaches we need to prepare more vigorously in reading, meditating and praying. 
When Doug and I were at University and then as young parents we were very blessed to have a Christian leader, Dr Chris Warton, who had this vision and passed it onto us, but over the years we have got tired, focused so heavily on daily trials and everyday life issues that we have neglected to pass this baton onto our kids properly. The need for this seems far less urgent in first world countries, where people do not usually die of AIDS. ( In South Africa there are places where 1 in 5 are HIV +, and that is probably underestimated!) Things clutter up our lives here and distract us from our focus. Our hurdle is lowered to make it easier, more comfortable. 
In practise it does not take more than a few words each day, a prayer in a different direction, the use of many opportunities as we talk and walk life with our kids. But we ourselves have to be thinking these things if we are to talk to our children about them. Our children will not see the vision it if we don't. We will not be properly diligent in raising our children if it is not important to us to raise kids who will pass on God's love with passionate mission mindedness. We need to join the dots for them as we reach out to others.... telling our children why we love to help, praying as a family that we will reach others for God; we need to talk and talk and talk and talk. Are we raising strong future missionaries, or just good Christians? Take a look at this free curriculum: http://harvestministry.org/twghw
I hope it will inspire you as much as it has me! You do not need to use it fully to benefit from it's mindset and to be inspired by it's mission mindedness! ( I have not read all the way through it, so please read with discretion as there may be some parts we may not agree with) May we reach people with God's love and compassion right now, just where we are! May our children grow up with a passionate desire to to touch others with God's love too!
Happy new school year! God bless you all as we run this race together, pass the baton onto our children, and raise the hurdles to their proper height in training ourselves and our children for life's race. Thank you for your blessing and encouragement over the years, love Joy
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