What are you putting into your child's MEGAMIND...

What instructions are you giving to your children? Who are you telling them that they are or can become? You may not think your input is important, but it is. The recent family hit movie “MegaMind” does a great job of displaying this theory. In the very beginning the Main character “MegaMind” is being sent by his parents to earth to save him from his exploding planet. When his parents place him in his space tube, they begin to tell him his awesome destiny when the hatch closes prematurely and MegaMind doesn’t hear the whole thing. Fast Forward, he ends up being raised by prisoners, shunned by school mates and determines within himself that he is supposed to be a super villain.

Eventually he learns that he doesn’t “have” to be evil. He learned that he can make different choices. But not before demolishing most of the city, taking over city hall and destroying the citizens way of life.

How many paths of destruction will your child have to stumble down…and how many messes will he or she make before you tell them and convince them of who they are and what they can do? Don’t let the "hatch" close (lines of communication) without letting them know what they are wired to do. This means you have to know your child. You need to know their strengths, their weaknesses and the way that they learn and respond.

In stepfamilies, this is extremely important because in most cases you have at least two parents that are missing from the everyday lives of any children involved that were brought into the marriage. Your job as their parent is to make sure that you don’t abandon this dynamic of your role in your child’s life. You cannot focus so much on blending everything together that you disregard the unique gifts of your children that God charged you with explicitly to nurture and cultivate. You are equipped with a unique perspicacity for your child….regardless of how old they are. Use your gift and sow words of wisdom, power and direction into them as often as you can. Tell them the have the Mind of Christ...which is a MEGAmind indeed!

The Optimus Prime Principle

On Sunday, Our Co-Pastor was speaking about “transformation” and encouraging those in worship to believe God for transformation in the area of their lives that needed changing. Moi, being the super spiritual power house that I am (riiiiiiiiiight.....lol) immediately began thinking about a movie. Yup, right in the middle of worship, I was thinking about a motion picture and I couldn’t shake it. It was relevant though, even though it seemed a tad inappropriate and intrusive at the time.

I thought about the Transformers…you know Optimus Prime, Bumblebee…decepticons, autobots..The Transformers! As soon as she said it, I saw Optimus Prime changing from an 18 wheeler to a robot in my mind over and over. I wasn’t too surprised as I know that God uses Movies and TV to teach me principles and spiritual things all the time for two good reasons; I am an extremely creative/visual type learner and the 2nd more obvious reason- I watched A LOT of TV in my day. So He's getting some use out of that seemingly senseless wealth of knowledge. Just wait to you see the pieces I am writing on Superman and Pinky & the Brain !! Anyway; immediately, I couldn’t say why that picture of Optimus transforming kept replaying in my head. What does this have to do with Parenting, Step-parenting? Or being married or being in a second marriage? Hmmmm, what can we glean from the “ Optimus Prime Principle” (lol)..?.

Everything they need to fight and function as a robot was in them as a vehicle. They didn’t need to pick up parts or add anything someone else had in order to operate as something else. They just heard the command “Autobots Transform” and then they switched. When they changed, everything adjusted to accommodate their new role. What were headlights is now armor for the chest. What was the engine, now serves as the brain for a functioning robot. Why? Because to prepare for battle you can’t remain the same way. There is a battle for your household and for your marriage. You can’t remain the same way, do the same thing and expect to be able to fight and win. You can’t see your child acting crazy and just “let them be”. You can’t notice the communication in your marriage getting touchy and just ignore it. You can’t continuously see your house falling apart and in disarray, kick the shoes and garbage to the side and keep going. You gotta use what you have, transform it and function differently in order to win.

What were executive administrative and office manager skills now serves at managing, organizing and maintaining a super-sized family. What was used in teaching in Sunday school and VBS, now is used for teaching children, god-daughters, nieces and nephews. The info gained from being the Secretary of the youth choir was used to take formal minutes years later in an executive auto meeting. Things my husband learned from his mother and sister (cooking cleaning, shopping and combing hair) prepared him for raising his kids alone when their mom died.

You have what is necessary to handle the roles you have been called upon to play out. Think, what can you already do well. What may seem insignificant, could be the transformable skill you need in a new area. Use the skills sets you already have and then adjust, refine, develop and transform. Transformers are really much “More than meets the eye”.