finished.
Most of us respect the self-motivated, except for when they prioritize their list over people. But is it wrong to be selfish-motivated? If a child claims inability to plan supper when asked to by her mother, but can plan every detail of party with friends, then we might think selfish-motivated is a bad thing.
Across the board though being selfish-motivated is not ALWAYS
bad. God looks at the heart. If the children are super quick to clean up the kitchen because they want to go swimming afterwards the label of bad may not fit. Perhaps they are being thoughtful of their responsibilities and want to make sure they take care of them before they go play.
So neither self-motivated nor selfish-motivated are always good
or always bad, but there is an option that is better than either of these. How about raising children that are servant motivated! Christ came to serve, so shouldn’t we too?
Presenting serving as a challenge can make it a fun way to learn
the skill. We have challenged our children to out serve their siblings for the summer. Actually, we told them to out serve the most serving of their siblings. Just like the verse no one particularly likes in the Bible “it is better to give than to receive” so it is better to serve than to be served!
We promised our children their best summer ever if they took us
up on this challenge. How could we do that? Because we know this is who God made us to be. “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit but in humility consider others better than yourselves.” Phil 2: 3