Week 33 - #Prepare “Imagine”

“Find Your Peaceful Imagination"

Philippians 4:7

"Then God's peace, which goes far beyond anything we can imagine, will guard your hearts and minds in union with the Messiah Jesus."

I can never get over a child’s imagination, as I witness my two granddaughters play "Jurassic Park" with a plain brown box they both climb in and out of making dinosaur growls or watching them running through the house with clothes hangers as their bow and arrows, pretending to be Merida in the Disney movie Brave.

Imagination can be a powerful tool.

When my daughter decided that she was going to be a teacher while in college I immediately imagined the hundreds of students she would impact positively throughout teaching career.

And when my son, the architect, from seventh grade on knew he wanted to be an architect, I imagined him one day designing buildings standing the test of time, and acknowledged in every book of architecture.

How fun it is to imagine!

I often wonder when I was a young dad, and even today as a granddad, how much I have limited or stifled the imagination of those I love?

Why is it that as adults we allow our years to "push out" even our own childlike imagining, we once so easily displayed and possessed?

Maybe it’s because we become blinded by life’s struggles, and responsibilities? When we see and experience peril, we have no peace. No true peace.

Without peace, there is no time to imagine.

But DADs, perfect peace only comes from God.

If we wish to truly find peace, enabling us to fully imagine, then we must prepare to seek God first.

Paul knew this as he wrote to the first Christian church in Europe at Philippi, “then God's peace, which goes far beyond anything we can imagine, will guard your hearts and minds in union with the Messiah Jesus" (Philippians 4:7).

DADs, life is way too short to live it without imagination. Prepare to appreciate the imagination of others. Practice imagining better solutions for yourself. Cast, and pour your imagination into those you love.

DADs, let’s prepare to imagine God’s love and peace for us today. A love and peace even greater than two little granddaughters playing with empty boxes and hangers could ever imagine!

To God be the glory!

DADs “get in the game”…

Today is game day…and so is every day…

God gives you! So…C’mon Men Suit Up!

**Today we prepare to “Imagine.” Next week we will consider how critical it is to prepare to “Innovate."

Note: *For this new year of 2021, the combination of my age (understanding my own fragile mortality), this current and ongoing global pandemic, and most recently the personal loss I’ve experienced of one of my students, has amplified the need to land on one word...#Prepare.

In this "pursuit to prepare" I am determined to dedicate the 52 weeks of 2021 blogging every Week about one aspect of preparation God lays on my heart.

As mentioned in week 1, the word “prepare” means “to establish, fix, or apply.” It conveys the idea of deliberate effort over a prolonged period of time.