Moments of... Faith Goals

Several years ago, my life changed after I listened to a podcast by Chip and Dale Heath discussing their book, The Power of Moments. I now approach life through the lens of “moments”.

So, what is a moment?

Their book says, "We all have defining moments in our lives - meaningful experiences that stand out in our memory.” Some defining moments are not things we can plan (i.e. the day you meet your future spouse), and some moments are ones we design and create.

The Heaths shared an example of a hotel in Los Angeles. This hotel was nothing special. It didn’t come close to many other fancy hotels in the area, and it didn't have special features or fancy facilities. But the hotel rated in the very top hotels in LA… why? Because the hotel staff created moments people remembered.

One of these moments was a 'popsicle hotline'. They placed a red telephone by the pool for all the hotel guests to access. Guests would pick up the phone, order free, limitless popsicles, and a server dressed in a tuxedo would bring the popsicle out, delivered on a special red cushion. Their guests loved it! Suddenly everyone wanted to travel to the hotel with the popsicle hotline. This was one of many moments the hotel created.

There are moments everyone celebrates which are defining moments in our lives. For example, society has chosen that birthdays are something we look forward to and celebrate. It could have been every 6 months or 2 years we celebrated, but no, tradition says every time you reach the annual recurrence of your birth date, we stop and celebrate. People bring gifts, we get together with loved ones, and we reminisce about the year that was and the year coming. On top of that, we've decided every 10 years is an EXTRA special milestone.

Life is filled with countless “moments” we celebrate, like anniversaries, the first day of school or a new job, and more!

Moments that are there which we don't celebrate… BUT COULD!

The Power of Moments talks about moments we could CHOOSE to celebrate. For example, why do we only celebrate years… why not days? Imagine a celebration marking 100 days at a new job. Many schools now celebrate "100 days of Prep", a new milestone for kids to look forward to.

One day, my incredibly creative husband surprised me with a card which said "Happy 10,000th day on Earth"! I had no idea he had set a reminder in his calendar for when I reached 10,000 days on earth to surprise me with a celebration.

Moments we create… ON PURPOSE!

So, we have moments we celebrate and moments we could celebrate. But then the authors went one step further. What if we CREATED moments we wanted to celebrate that aligned with our faith goals?

They shared about a high school primarily attended by students from very low-income families. Many of these students would be the first in their family to graduate high school, students who never imagined or expected to go to a big college. So the school CREATED a moment that kids could work towards their whole high school experience, which helped change the culture.

They created a ceremony called ‘Signing Day’. Everyone dressed up and all the students in the school attended. Friends and family were invited, and staff would read out which college each student had been accepted into after graduating. This special MOMENT became something the kids strived for: they wanted their grades to be good enough to get a college offer, and they started striving to get a good college offer.

Before they knew it, this high school was known for some of the highest academic results, and students were accepted into the best colleges in the country. All because they CREATED A MOMENT aligned with their goals, then pursued and chased them, after being able to live out that moment.

Moments and FAITH GOALS

Why don't we do the same, but with where GOD wants us to go! Mix this with our faith.

At SuperKids, we live by this concept. We have created a list of MOMENTS and CELEBRATIONS for when we achieve them. We looked at what a SuperKid is and created moments based on who we want our SuperKids to be.

Some of our “Moment that we celebrate” are:

• Tell a friend about Jesus (creating SuperKids who tell others about Jesus)

• Invite a friend to church (creating SuperKids with a discipling mentality)

• Attend SuperKids 10 times, 25 times and 50 times (creating SuperKids with faithfulness and commitment)

• Read the Bible at home (creating SuperKids who love the Word)

• Do something FUN (stands for Follower of Jesus, United, Nice)

Then we have a list of celebrations! It might be something simple, like ringing a fun bell or Commander Jay wearing a silly hat and dancing. Or moments where they are presented with a certificate on the church stage or receive a handshake from Ps Peter. The SuperKids are excited to experience these moments, anticipating the celebration to come.

Imagine and create moments

What path do you envision for your life? Where is God calling you and what has He told you to step out and accomplish? Is there a spiritual trait you want to nurture?

Perhaps you want to read the Word every day, but struggle to form the habit? Plan a celebration for when you’ve read the Word 7 days in a row, then 21 days, 50 days… and so on. Or end each day with a special family MOMENT in the Word. After dinner, gather everyone together in the lounge room for someone to read aloud a Bible chapter. Let it become a moment everyone looks forward to.

I encourage you to start imagining and creating MOMENTS which are shaped by where you want to go and who you want to be.