Reimagine Parenting: Raising Creative Kids in a Dream-Crushing World

When we envision how we want to raise creative kids, we don’t always see the challenging aspects that will buffet them and us in the process. The world seems harsh and hateful, and it doesn’t regard our little ones in the same way we treasure them. We imagine our children as superheroes, yet ourselves as less so.

When we consider our own challenges, we may question if we are fully equipped to offer our children what they need to thrive. However, God knows the world that we live in and has given us our birth and adopted children to raise to be creative and resilient, despite it all.

Part of the mystery of His Godhood is that He doesn’t remove the negative from our world to bring about greatness. He recognizes that we may be touched by it and have experiences that would threaten to trample us underfoot.

God knows that His purpose is at work, despite the fallen world and the imperfect nature of people, both within and beyond our bubble. His divine design creatively repurposes outside forces and foes, including the ones that seek to steal, kill, and destroy what He has planted in our hearts and minds.

Parents: dreamers and destiny-shapers.

Whether we realize it or not, parents are dreamers and destiny-shapers. It is up to us to partner with the Holy Spirit to bring His vision for our family to fruition. We can build with God a sense of the core values that will govern and guide our families.

As we equip our children to walk into their future with God, we model what it looks like to celebrate the Father’s abundant hope for humanity. The words of Jesus are life to us and remind us that God places a high value on a child’s nature.

God entrusts us as parents to shape the destiny of our children. We may not fully recognize the weight and scope of God’s design for them, but we can teach them how to live with God and submit their living dreams, gifts, and talents to the Original Dreamer. God Himself imagined them.

He has plans for them to bring what is in their heads and hearts into a world that needs what they have. Though we as parents do not always have a ready response to our children’s endless inquiries, we are graced to support them in deepening their dependence and fellowship with the One who is the answer.

The language of imagination.

Listen to the language of imagination in your children. As adults, we tend to dismiss our children’s naivete. We might even benignly patronize them, thinking their notions are sweet, yet unrealistic. We subtly, though unintentionally, dismiss the hope that fuels impossible dreams in favor of cynicism.

However, Jesus illustrated a different example, that neither compromised practicality nor spirituality. He wasn’t ignorant of the vices in the world, but that didn’t stop Him from encouraging His then-disciples and us to be childlike in significant ways that would make the impossible a reality.

But Jesus said, ‘Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.’ – Matthew 19:14, ESV

Our relationship with the Lord models how a loving parent interacts. Our Heavenly Father never abandons, but always champions us. Whether or not we, as adults, have walked away from our dreams, we can attest that those dreams and ideas don’t leave us.

God works through our memory and imagination to stir desire for Him and for what He’s placed in us. When we consider our children, we can encourage them (and ourselves in the process) to build a relationship with God that is sensitive to the voice of our Shepherd.

My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. – John 10:27, NIV

Building faith, building fire.

Parents don’t have all the answers, but what we do have, as those who believe, is enough knowledge of God to point our kids to their Father and Creator. In the Bible, Elkanah and Hannah, Samuel’s parents, dedicated their little one to be raised in the temple by Eli, the high priest.

As a toddler, Samuel began hearing the voice of the Lord. Initially, Eli seemed irritated by Samuel’s continual coming to him about continually hearing his name called in the middle of the night until the elder realized that the voice of God was stirring and speaking Samuel’s name.

That changed everything in the dynamic. Eli then encouraged Samuel to respond to God with an open and available heart. Eli helped Samuel grow in reliance and relationship with the Lord from a young age.

Later, Samuel became the judge and prophet who would play a significant role in biblical prophecy by eventually anointing David as King of Israel. Though Samuel was born to His once infertile mother, Hannah, he was born out of God’s plans for a prophet to lead Israel into a new dimension for the chosen people.

In Samuel’s story, his parents and the high priest were instrumental in his growth in his relationship with God. They ensured that the little one would be in a position to hear from God and grow with God.

We can learn from their example that as much as we love our children, we won’t have everything that they need. We will need to encourage them to have their own relationship with the God who does and who will. God will meet them, in faith, where they are.

Childlike faith flourishes in hearts who refuse to become jaded and distorted by life events. Disappointments come, but they can serve as an invitation to imagine with God beyond limitation.

Our children do this naturally when they inquire, leading with “Why or why not?” We may not always want to respond to such questions. However, we can encourage them to be bold, persistent, and inquisitive, activating their simple prayers and faith to seed dreams and ideas that come from God.

Praise for problem-solving.

In this way, problem-solving is a gift. Our children grow in confidence when they have challenges. It doesn’t feel good to them when they don’t get their way or to us when facing a tantrum. However, learning to work through life’s puzzles not only develops their brains early in life but forges character as well. It builds a mindset for approaching and resolving uncomfortable or difficult tasks and a place to partner with God for what is possible only with Him.

Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.” – Mark 10:27, NIV

Often, we as parents, want to rescue our children from trouble, which is a natural and normal response to seeing them in discomfort. However, with some guidance and measured restraint on our part, we can partner with God, our children, and the conflict that challenges present.

The world’s problems demand creative solutions. They are opportunities for our kids to unleash their inquisitive nature and ask questions with answers that come from heaven. God is often working through difficulties to bring out the natural gifts, abilities, and aptitudes.

Children use creativity as a problem-solving skill in the areas where they are gifted or talented. When one way doesn’t work, they may try other avenues to accomplish their objective. They may not realize it, but this is part of fostering resilience. One of the purest ways that we can praise God is simply by being who He has created us to be. He showcases how He has created them with a vision and dream unique to the purpose and destiny that He has designed.

Next steps.

While we are raising our families, challenges are inevitable. We as parents will encounter threats and doubts as part of the path. However, God has equipped us with the ability to feed our children’s faith as we foster their creativity and confidence.

Working with a counselor from this site may offer the support that we need to develop creative parenting approaches to champion our young ones. That may be the best next step to reimagine our parenting and develop the dreams that God has planted in them and us.