Misty Fitch | Fearfully Made

I love how life brings ideas for posts!  Recently I was praying for my son and for him to be able to understand the leadership power he was given.  Leadership power.  That phrase seemed as if it jumped right off the page for me.

It doesn’t matter your age, ethnicity, gender, family, or decisions you made in your past; you were created with a purpose – a power, if you will.  If you are reading this right now, then I want you to understand that you were not excluded when God was passing out plans for everyone.  🙂

My son is really into superheroes.  He’s never watched anything on tv about them, and I don’t know that he’s even read anything about him.  He’s a boy, though, and somehow boys eventually learn what a superhero is.  Boys dream of being superheroes just like girls dream of being princesses.  The cool thing is that God placed those dreams in us all at an early age, and he also equipped us to be the real version of both of those!  Today, I want to hone in on superheroes.

My sweet little 6 year old is like every other 6 year old in that he tests boundaries every time he turns around.  It’s almost as though he enjoys getting in trouble, and I’m pretty sure he thinks it’s funny when he gets his little sister in trouble!  I understand that kids do this, but I also understand that he has a calling on his life, and it’s his dad’s and my responsibility to help him stay within the boundaries he’s given so he can learn and grow in his calling.

We’ve come up with any idea we can think of and have taken advice from many friends on how to get him out of the defiant phase he’s in.  Unfortunately, we haven’t found anything that works.  He knows exactly what’s right and wrong, but sometimes it’s more fun to him when he does those things he isn’t supposed to do.

How about you?  Do you find yourself rebelling sometimes?  Maybe it’s with your parents, or your teachers, or your boss, or maybe you are just downright defiant to what you know God wants you to do.

Read Romans 7:14-25 about struggling with knowing what’s right but still doing what’s wrong.  You may find it to be parallel with something you’re going through.

V14-15 So the trouble is not with the law, for it is spiritual and good. The trouble is with me, for I am all too human, a slave to sin. I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate.

V18 I want to do what is right, but I can’t.  I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway.

Does that sound familiar?  I remember the first time I read this, and my eyes were opened.  It was almost a relief to see that someone in the Bible wrote exactly the things I felt!  

We’ve read this scripture to our son, and we’ve talked to him about the plan God has for him to be a leader.  We’ve even explained that it’s up to him to decide whether he will be leading people in the right direction or wrong direction.  Of course, he always says he wants to lead in the right direction, but we haven’t seen the effects of that yet.  I think the problem is that he knows all the answers to our questions, and he understands the difference in right and wrong, but he’s never been able to make the connection on what kind of power he holds by having that leadership calling.  I think we made a connection last night.

Test Your Powers

Last night, I sat with my son and explained to him, again, that God called him to be a leader and that he is already a leader right now.  Then, I went on to tell him that he has what is called leadership power, and that’s his superhero power.

Finally, I got his attention!

So the first thing he has to decide is if he is going to be a good superhero that helps people or one of the bad guys that the superheroes are always fighting off.  Of course, he wants to be the good superhero because they always win.

With his powers, he will teach his friends to be whatever kind of superhero he is.  I knew he was interested but still hadn’t completely made the connection, so I took it a step further.

“Let’s test your powers,” I whispered to him last night.  His eyes grew wide because he realized I wasn’t pretending he was a superhero.  I was telling him that he is a real superhero.

So I went on to tell him that he should try for the whole week to test his powers by doing what he knows he’s supposed to do.  I knew he needed an example of how to test his powers.

“When you are in Spanish today and Johnny* does funny things, and you really want to laugh, you can decide you’re not going to look at him.  Instead you’re going to look at Señora Nice Teacher* and listen to what she’s saying and do what she tells you to do.  You’ll get to come home with your sticker because you did the right thing!

Tomorrow, do the same thing.  You may see that today and tomorrow Kevin* still laughs at Johnny, but on Thursday, Kevin may notice that you are paying attention to Sra. Nice Teacher and decide to do the same thing.  Then, guess what!  Kevin won’t lose his sticker for the day!”

Somehow that was exciting to him.  I went on.

“And you know what else?  On Friday, Johnny will see that no one is laughing at him, so he won’t think it’s fun anymore, and he’ll stop acting silly in class.  Then, Johnny will get his sticker on Friday, too!!  That means just because you did what you were supposed to do, you got your sticker every day, and you helped your friends make good decisions and get their stickers too!  AND you didn’t even have to tell them to do anything!”

By then, he was excited to try it.  He felt . . . well, powerful.  We’ll see if it works, but I do know that this was the first connection he had made to the countless hours we’ve talked to him about obeying and being a leader.

Your Turn

Okay, so it’s your turn.  What is your power?  Call it what you want: talent, gift, calling, plan, purpose, it doesn’t matter.  What is it?

Now, how can you test it?  Spend a week testing it.  I bet you’ll see how powerful you are if you stick to it for one week without veering off path.

Is your power talking to others in a way they feel special?  Test it.  Find strangers at lunch, and sit with them.  Listen to them and talk to them.  Watch how special they feel.  Then, watch how special they make others feel.

Is your power making people laugh?  Find the appropriate time and seek out someone whose spirit needs lifting.  Watch how they lift someone else’s spirit in a few days.

Is your power leadership, like my son’s?  Take his test, but make it fit into your life.

More important than anything is that you’ll find it’s not about you.  When you test your powers and use them regularly, not only will they grow stronger, but you’ll find others are being positively affected.  In turn, they might begin using their own powers.

What powers do you hold?  How will you use them today?

*Names have been changed