The Greatest Weapon God Uses to Change the Universe

One great attribute about God is that He is able to see dispensations days, months, decades, centuries and yes, even mellenia before they happen. He goes behind the scenes to benignly set the ball rolling and set the state for things to happen. At times, we might be thinking that things just happened for the sake of happening, but there will always be an invisible hand of God in it. He has a mightily powerful secret weapon that he uses…which is not really secret at all…we just ignore it daily.

It is more than 300 years to the date today as the world remembers the battle of Waterloo. This is where the great Napoleon Bonarparte, the Emperor of France was finally defeated.

I came across this powerful illustration from my devotions.

A Child Is Born

In the early days of the nineteenth century, men were following with bated breath the march of Napoleon and waiting with feverish impatience for the latest news of the wars. And all the while, in their own homes, babies were being born.
Just think of some of those babies. In one year, lying midway between Trafagar and Waterloo, there stole into the world a host of well-known men! During that year, 1809, Mr. Gladstone was born at Liverpool; Alfred Tennyson drew his first breath at the Somersby rectory; and Oliver Wendell Holmes made his initial appearance in Massachusetts. On the very self-same day of that self-same year, Abraham Lincoln made his debut in Old Kentucky. Music was enriched by the advent of Frederick Chopin at Warsaw and Felix Mendolssohn at Hamburg.
But, nobody thought of babies. Everybody was thinking of battles. Yet, viewing that age in the truer perspective which the years enable us to command, we may well ask ourselves [ictt-tweet-inline]which of the battles of 1809 mattered more than the babies of 1809[/ictt-tweet-inline]. When a wrong wants righting, or a work wants doing, or a truth wants preaching, or a continent wants opening, God sends a baby into the world to do it. This is why, long, long ago, a Babe was born at Bethlehem.
It was at a wayside inn that God began making the world all over again. Momentous things were set in motion at that inn at Bethlehem.

When a wrong wants righting, or a work wants doing, or a truth wants preaching, or a continent wants opening, God sends a baby into the world to do it

Can you believe that? I invite you to stop all the traffic around you. Take a look at the babies in your vicinity. Probably they are in your own house, or compound. These babies, ladies and gentlemen could be the very answer that the world is looking for. There are countless nations on earth that are reeling with economic burdens, social political burdens and fear. All the while the people in those countries are ignoring…babies…the very answer that has already been sent to them.

So What Should We Do?

I am so glad you asked. First off, I think our thinking needs to deliberately change. This morning, I saw a great tweet from my friend Mary Helda. This is what she said:

[ictt-tweet-blockquote]”Expecting the best in people brings out the best in them and seeing the worst in people brings out the worst in them”[/ictt-tweet-blockquote]

That right there is the answer. We need to start seeing these babies, toddlers, teenagers and young men and women as the greatest weapon that God uses in His Kingdom. If we did that, the way we treated them would instantly change:

• We would spend more time with them as compared to the time we spend on TV and social media
• We would spend more money on them as compared to the money we spend on cell phones and curtains, cars and clothes
• We would spend more thought on them as compared to the time we spend on worry
• We would invest more in their future, their gifts, their talents and potential as compared to the amount we invest in land and property.

You get the message. The following are 5 specific ways we can sharpen God’s greatest weapons.

1. Give Them Perspective:

This means that instead of relegating their lives to passing exams and going up in levels at school, they are made aware of the mandate, purpose and mission that God has placed on their lives. If a child is given this kind of perspective, she becomes a seeker. Nothing is more useful to this world as a seeker of purpose and meaning! Unfortunately, we have 21 year-olds who have no perspective in life apart from getting a job to rent, stabilize, get married and make their offspring go through the same process they did!

2. Nurture Them

It has to be as deliberate as possible. Nurturing is not giving freedom for them to do anything and everything that they want or need. To nurture is to provide an environment where their personality, values and principles are instilled. I think the worst that parents do is to fail to teach their children on what works and what doesn’t. They fail to teach them on principles of success and failure. They fail to teach them on values such as valuing other humans above self. Nurturing is to be done to the spirit of the child, not just the character and personality.

3. Guide Them

Teaching and mentoring is a key responsibility. Do you know the biggest feedback I get from my coaching/training clients? It is:

“I wish someone had taught me these things earlier”

Why that feedback? Simple. They were not taught these things at home. If a child is taught and mentored, some of the things we call secrets today will actually be systems for them. I wrote about the greatest key words in personal development some time back. If a child is taught that early and guided along the way, they do not need to see it as a secret any more than you do. To them, it is a way of life. So we have to invest in thought, environment, and content as far as guiding our children is concerned. We need to have insight in why we are educating them, not just sending them to school.

4. Excavate Their Potential

I do not get it when my son Ethan is obsessed with bands and especially the drummer in a band. He has his own drums that he plays. There were no drums in our house when he was born but you would think that there were. Now, if I put on a traditional cap, I would easily shun him and never explore this talent because I might be thinking that drumming never changed the world. But I would be wrong. Not everyone can be a Netanyahu, an Obama or a notable scientist. My work is to allow this intrigue and interest that Ethan has in music to develop fully…where it will take him I have no clue.

5. Protect Them

Now, it is easy to look at protection from the angle of shielding someone from physical or bodily harm. That is alright, but the protection I am talking about today is more than that. [ictt-tweet-inline]The greatest protection you can offer your child is that of their self esteem[/ictt-tweet-inline]. I could repeat that a thousand times. Daily, words are spoken against kids, they are laughed at, they are ridiculed and made to doubt themselves and second-guess themselves. Knowing that each child is a gift to the world, our words daily have to protect and preserver their purpose, affirming, strengthening and assuring them that they are important and that they are needed.

As we remember the battle of Waterloo, let us not forget the many babies that are being born. Let us not forget that they are the weapons that God is using to effect changes in the world. And let us not forget that today is my daughter’s birthday. Happy Birthday Serah!