Remember Plinko – the famous game from The Price is Right?
It may surprise you to know that the pegs on the Plinko board are not designed for a one-track outcome. You may get lucky, but there is a greater chance you will not hit your intended target because of the designed peg placement.
Now, consider disciple making and your son(s). As you “let go” of your son, where is he headed?
In all God’s ways, the end is always in mind. He knew what it would take for me and you to have perfect fellowship with him. And he has intentionally crafted a plan to ensure that happens. He has planted intentional pegs in our lives. With thought, we can reflect on those people, places and times and how they have brought us to where we are in our relationship with him.
Are we living with that same intention? Are we peg-planting with eternity as our target?
Are we intentionally providing the pegs of time, space, and people for our sons to know God? Are we intentionally planning to make them disciples that make disciples? Are we targeting “a future generation, that a people not yet created may praise the Lord”? (Ps. 102:18)
Plinko is not a plan.
I love the 80’s. I love the Price is Right. I love Bob Barker. I even love Plinko. But playing Plinko by giving our sons good things that lead to other good things, may not eventually lead to the best things.
An unintentional home can be a breeding ground for sin, passivity, idol worship, and unrepentance that gives rise to a slothful generation.
We could get lucky like some of the contestants, and witness our kids become disciples that make disciples as they bounce to and fro from the unintentionally planted pegs of life, but…can’t we strategically do better?
With intention, God allows us to experience “no greater joy” in watching our children choose to share in His love. If watching our children “walk in the truth,” truly gives us “no greater joy,” then what are we doing to intentionally target and experience that joy?
Let us precisely plant pegs in our sons’ lives so they are propelled through life becoming Godly men with the “mind of Christ”. That they “press on toward the prize for which God has called (them) heavenward.”
Give your son space to catch things from like-minded Dads that your child might not hear from you. Let him catch the best things from intentionally planted peers, people and places.
Consider this from Manhood Journey group members like Tony, who loves seeing his son “being surrounded by Dads who instill similar values.” Or Lewis, who enjoys watching the boys “learn from each other”. Or Marvin, who is “amazed at how well the kids know the Word.”
Prayerful, intentional, designed peg-planting. Now, that is a winning strategy.
By Chad Foster
