My family and I like to snuggle up and watch movies together. One of the girls will pop the popcorn, the other will slice and ready the apples, my husband prepares the movie to be viewed, while my son and I grab the blankets. It’s one of our favorite times to spend as a family but every so often a movie may catch me off guard when the Lord uses it to convict me in my spirit and give me a wake-up call.

Let’s begin with a small overview of the Lego Movie.

Emmet, a construction worker, is the main character.  He builds by the instructions given. He loves life and sings how “Everything is Awesome.” One day after work he notices a woman, Wildstyle, after hours at his construction site.  Emmet goes to investigate when he falls into a hole. When he awakes, he in the custody of Bad Cop being asked questions about the Piece of Resistance now attached upon his back. Wildstyle rescues him and takes him to safety and is told that he’s “The Special” prophesied to put an end to Lord Business and his plans to freeze the world with Kragle (a.k.a krazy glue).

In the interim, he discovers he is not “The Special” and his life not so awesome as previously thought. He was a construction worker but he didn’t have the skills or talent necessary to be a Master Builder in their Lego world and he sees that all those he considered his friends never really knew him let alone his name.

In the end we find out that Lord Business is actually the father to a real-life boy in this world named Finn. His dad clearly loves building empires and cities from Legos securing them with Krazy Glue. He likes neatness and order, as well as not sharing his love of building Legos with his son. He pretty much had a see with your eyes and not with your hands rule. Finn would be what the movie called a Master Builder. He created Lego masterpieces without directions and was very talented, however his father considered his talent more of a hindrance as it went against his own way of order.

This is where I became convicted. As mom, I like neatness and order. I like for my kids to do things my way and what I want but at the end of the day, I’m asking my kids to conform to the patterns of my mom (or dad) world. Now I’m not saying that we shouldn’t teach them right from wrong, expect certain things from them, or not discipline them when they are out of line. Neither am I saying we shouldn’t give them guidance and leadership as they make steps to set flight when they reach adulthood. However, when our desires are for them to do and be as we want them to do and be, we stifle their creativity, thinking processes, and themselves as individuals. It’s not our way or the highway, but God’s.

I know it sounds like I’m far-reaching but hear me out.  Here are some questions to experiences that are examples of this that have made me go hmmm. When you ask children especially teens why they do certain things in their family they answer with, “I don’t know, ask my parents.”  When you ask them what their faith is and why they reply with, “My parents faith, and I don’t know.”  There are some who know what their desire is and say, “I would like to go to school for this but my parents desire me to do this instead.”  It truly is shocking in the fact that some don’t know how to answer nor express their desires opposite of will and desire of their parents.

Have we stifled their God-given dreams, creativity and talents at the price of our desires and accomplishments we want for them? Have we exchanged God’s will and hand in their lives for our own will and way? Sadly in my convicted heart, I think we do. It’s easy really. We look at our accomplishments and hail them as the “Piece of Resistance” and exchange the talents and blueprints given in their lives to live instead in our shadows, our own desires.  We push, pry, and set their path to worthiness forgetting they already are. Suddenly their lives become all too real to the void felt in their hearts of being unlovable and not considered special when they lack the necessary skills, talents and creativity to achieve the precedent we place before them.

How can we change it? We can start by recognizing and building upon God’s fingerprint in their lives. Foster it, encourage them and lead them on that path instead. Just because we felt our lives were awesome in our accomplishments, doesn’t mean the same path is Gods will and plan for our children. His plan for their lives may even be better than we could possibly imagine! I know it would be! Our number one priority should be to teach them the blueprints of life with the instruction manual already given, the Bible, and be an example for them to follow.  As long as God is the Master Builder in their lives, He will be the “kragle” that holds all the craziness life brings creating something far better for them than we ever could ourselves.