A Dream Come True
Reflective Reading: Hebrews 5
Dreaming is a gift, a delightful part of childhood. Dreaming of being a teacher, a fireman, a policeman, an astronaut—and even a superhero—is essential to the preparation of a child’s future. But without clear direction, focused cultivation, and consideration for others, dreaming will lead one to wander aimlessly.
Ever since I was a child I was told that I was a dreamer, and it’s true—I was a daydreamer. My dreams reached their pinnacle in math class, history class, science class, and English class. The only class I wasn’t daydreaming was gym class! As a child, dreaming was merely a way to escape. With no direction, I wandered; with no focus, life was a blur. My dreams remained a muddle of wishful thinking that benefited no one. Years later, through the influence of the Word of God, daydreaming merged into a visionary gift that opened doors of unimaginable proportions.
If you have a child who is a dreamer, he possesses a gift that needs a little direction and a lot of training. In the book of Genesis, we read about another directionless dreamer. His name was Joseph. In chapter 37 we read: “A man found Joseph wandering in the fields. And the man asked him, ‘What are you seeking?’” As a youth, Joseph was seeking his own advantage—his own glory. God had given him a unique gift, the ability to see the future. But Joseph was too self-absorbed to understand his true purpose and calling. Condescendingly he boasted that his father and brothers would bow down to him. As the family snitch, compounded by his air of superiority, his brothers hated him.
As I consider why God chose to reveal that “Joseph was wandering in the fields,” I find it ironic that the one who dreams about the future can’t figure out where he’s going. From all appearances, Joseph doesn’t seem like a good candidate to have a successful future. Because of his lack of character and self-absorbed conceitedness, Joseph used the gift that God had given him for his own self-exaltation.
It is important that we as parents do not flatter our children when we observe obvious talents and natural abilities. We should never tell a child that they are amazing in a certain skill, rather, we should celebrate their hard work and effort. Joseph’s dad was in large part to blame because he incentivized his son’s prideful self-centeredness through partiality and pampering.
Even in modern times, children who are recognized as possessing extraordinary abilities as opposed to extraordinary effort, have a greater tendency to become prideful and apathetic as they reduce effort into their adult years, thus hindering the advancement of their giftedness. To substantiate this conjecture, Stanford Psychologist Carol Dweck, gave 400 seventh graders a set of relatively easy puzzles to assemble and then divided them into two groups. One group was told, “You must be smart at this!” The second group was told, "You must have worked really hard!" Then each child was offered the opportunity to take a follow-up test that included either another set of easy puzzles or a much harder set of puzzles. More than 50% of the kids praised for their intelligence chose the easy set of puzzles and an astounding 90% of the kids praised for their hard work chose the more difficult puzzles.
When God’s gifts are used to build our own dreams without the foundation of mature spiritual discernment, we wander from the plan and purpose that God has designed for us. Hebrews 5:11-14 states that,
“…everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the Word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.”
Joseph possessed a gift to see the future but he lacked the spiritual discernment to know how to use it for God’s glory and the benefit of others.
So how does God help wandering dreamers to see clearly? Like Joseph, when we enroll in the school of testing, our inner directional compass begins to respond. Our clouded vision is no longer obscured. In Psalm 105 David writes that God,
“sent a man ahead of them, Joseph, who was sold as a slave. His feet were hurt with fetters; his neck was put in a collar of iron; until what he had said came to pass, the Word of the LORD tested him.”
The Hebrew word for “tested” carries the idea to fuse metal, or to refine, purify, or purge away like a goldsmith. As a metaphor, it carries the idea to prove or examine someone.
Only after years of discipline and suffering could he understand that the “bowing down” of his brothers was an opportunity for him to provide and protect— not to lord it over them. God used abandonment, imprisonment, and betrayal to refine Joseph’s vision for the future. Once he realized that his dreams were God-given gifts for the benefit of others, the vision for his future ministry became clear. Through his gift of dreaming Joseph would now pave the way for his family and nation to see God’s redeeming love!
Dreams plus discernment leads to deliverance. When we use our gifts for the benefit of others, our dreams will come true in ways we never dreamed possible.
Mark Hamby
M.S., M. Div., Th. M., D. Min.
President
Recommended Resources:
For Parents
Talent Code by Daniel Coyle
Families Where Grace is in Place by David Walsh
For Children 6-11
For Children 10-13
For Teens and Adults
