You may have had a casual conversation with your little ones about this question. Seeing the sparks in their eyes, you are excited about their reply. Little Johnny says, “I want to be a policeman”. Little Nancy says, “I want to be a doctor”. If the conversation goes further, you may have asked “why do you want to be a doctor, Nancy?”  Nancy replies, “I want to be like that doctor; she helped me and my tummy ache get better”. Like Nancy, all of us have a desire to be someone; someone we admire; someone we consider of value. As parents, we all expect our children to become someone special, someone of value.

This is the heart of God. Genesis 1:27 “God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28 Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

Many of us go through life trying to be that “someone” we would like to become. We want to identify with someone we value and admire. Little did we realize that we already have an identify in God by creation. This identify is of God. We are created in God’s own image and blessed by God. We are meant to be fruitful and multiply, and to have dominion over all things.

Children and the young people nowadays are exposed to a very confusing culture. They do not know their relationship with God nor their identity in God. The teachings of the world bombard them with false expectations and deceive them with false idols. They influence our young ones to set their goals to be identified by their physical appearance, by their talents, by their life styles, or by their titles. These false identities build up the emptiness inside. Because after all these “identities”, they don’t really know who they are.

When I was little, I had wishes to be a doctor, a teacher, and a writer. Now journeying through life, I have been all of them. But only after I was saved, I realized that I was made to be more. I was made to be like God and I am a beloved child of God. (1 John 3:1). God wants to give me life, and give it more abundantly. (John 10:10). I am fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14). God has a plan for me. He plans to prosper me, and gives me a future (Jeremiah 29:11). Furthermore, He has given me Christ, who because of His great love, shed His own blood to cleans me from all my sins. He abolished all power of enemy over me by bearing the cross; and giving me the victory and dominion over the enemy and all things by His resurrection from the dead. Not only was I created in His image, now I have Him living inside of me. He and I are now one.

Gal 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me”.

Colossians 1:27 “To whom God was pleased to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory”.

I have a purpose in God.  Ephesians 2:10 “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them”.

“What do you want to be when you grow up”? May we help our children to truly know the answer.

Author: Dr. Jyh-Mei Liu-Swartz