Christmas Gift Guide - For Women
Christmas Gift Guide - For Women
Answering Kids’ Hardest Questions: “What If I’m Not as Good at Things as Other Kids?”
This article is part of the Answering Kids’ Hardest Questions series.
Unique Giftings
As kids shakily seek out their place in the world, it’s easy for them to compare themselves to their peers. These comparisons can stir up some unsettling feelings. Maybe they’re on a Little League team, and as hard as they try, they just can’t run as fast or hit as far as the other players. Maybe they have a friend who is an exceptional dancer, or another who can do beautiful charcoal drawings many years above his or her grade level, and your child looks at his own scribblings and his own awkward feet and says, Why can’t I be as good at these things as some other kids?
As natural as these questions may seem, when not carefully shepherded, comparisons can lead to envy, to resentment, and to low feelings of self-worth. When kids raise these kinds of questions, offer them a biblical counterpoint. In Paul’s letter to the Romans, he says that we all have gifts that differ, according to the grace given to us.
The Dream Keeper Saga Set
Kathryn Butler
Mixing fantasy with Christian themes, the Dream Keeper Saga takes middle-grade readers on an adventure steeped in magic, mystery, and glimmers of hope. This set includes all 5 books in the series by Kathryn Butler.
He says that we are members of the body of Christ. Just as your hand and your teeth and your stomach all have very different and essential functions that are unique, so also he equips us with unique gifts that he designs specifically for us, and they won’t look the same necessarily as our peers and neighbors. God has made each of us in his image and woven into us different giftings, skills, and attributes according to his divine will and plan.
In fact, in Ephesians 2:10 it says that we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, that he has prepared ahead of time, so that we may walk in them. The key concept that kids need to understand is that what matters isn’t the specific ability they have, their capacity to be the best at a given activity or sport, or even their propensity to earn the accolades and approval of their peers and onlookers, but rather that they steward the gifts that God has given them for his glory.
It matters to him when we are faithful with what he’s given us, regardless of what it looks like to the outside world.
Colossians 3:23 tells us to work heartily as for the Lord, and not for men. God does not care about grade point averages. He’s not impressed by the trophies that line a bookshelf. Rather, what matters most to him is the stance of the heart. And when we teach our kids to view their giftings as attributes that God’s given them for them to steward for his glory, the concerns of their peers just fade into the background, and the smallest, most ordinary of tasks suddenly take on kingdom significance.
They’re able to celebrate the successes of their peers, because rather than comparing, they can see all of it occurring according to God’s good work and his will. When your kids go into comparison mode, guide them instead to view their gifts as means to glorify the Lord and to give back to him a portion of what he’s given to us. Whatever it is they do, whether it’s hockey, horseback riding, tennis, or even just the simple, ordinary tasks of taking out the garbage faithfully without complaining or coming alongside a friend in empathy, they have a chance to do all to God’s glory. And that matters to the Lord. It matters to him when we are faithful with what he’s given us, regardless of how it looks to the outside world.
Kathryn Butler is the author of The Dream Keeper Saga.
Popular Articles in This Series
View All
Answering Kids’ Hardest Questions: Will God Always Keep Me Safe?
As a parent, we’re often trying to help our kids overcome fears that they might be encountering in their lives. But we have to remember that God never promises bad things won't happen to us.
Answering Kids’ Hardest Questions: Does God Love Everyone the Same?
God hates the sin that’s in us, but he sent his son Jesus to pay the penalty for our sins so that we can have a relationship with him.
Answering Kids’ Hardest Questions: Why Can’t I Have Screen Time All the Time?
Andrew T. Walker, Christian Walker
There is no Bible verse that says, “Thou shalt not use an iPad,” or a commandment that says “You can have twenty-five minutes of screen time per day.”
Answering Kids’ Hardest Questions: If God Speaks to Me, Why Can’t I Hear Him?
No, we can’t hear God audibly, but we can hear him speak in the sense that he has written his thoughts down for us to read and to hear in his word.
