What Is Success?
Theme of the week: How to Raise Successful Children
Monday, April 16, 2012
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Key Bible Verses: "The market is flooded with surefire, easygoing formulas for a successful life …. Don't fall for that stuff …. The way to life—to God!—is vigorous and requires total attention." (Matthew 7:13-14, The message) Dig Deeper: Matthew 7:9-27
If parenting aims at helping our kids succeed in life, what's success going to look like?
In sports, success usually has a clear definition. For professional teams, it's winning the Super Bowl or the World Series. For individuals, success means winning the Masters, the Indy 500, or the Boston Marathon. For Olympic athletes, success means stepping onto the platform and accepting that gold, silver, or bronze medal.
The business world measures success in terms of shareholder value, company size, meeting a sales target, or gaining in market share.
In education, success means an improvement in test scores, winning the band competition, or attaining an advanced degree.
Most of us have a definition of success that we strive for. It might be a title at work, a level of income, or a particular social status.
But true success isn't a list of accomplishments. There's something deeper to true success. Something more substantial. Something harder to achieve, harder to measure, but long-lasting and deeply meaningful. I'm talking about intangible but ultimately significant qualities. Things like honesty, loyalty, integrity, compassion, and character.
—John Fuller in First-Time Dad
My Response: How do I personally define success? What do I believe are "significant qualities" that I must seek to build into my children?
Adapted from First-Time Dad (Moody, 2011) by permission. All rights reserved by the copyright holder and/or the publisher. May not be reproduced.
Copyright © 2012 by Christianity Today/Men of Integrity magazine. Click here for reprint information on Men of Integrity. 1 of 1
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Father, forgive me when my expectations for my kids reflect my own definition of success rather than yours; help me to more consistently model for my family what it means to be a sincere Christ-follower.
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