At some point in our lives, we’ve all dreamed of being the next movie star or a famous celebrity of some sort. Personally, I used to tell people I was going to be the first female president.

Who in your life do you know that you would define as having “made it,” and what barometer did you use to identify them? If the barometer of success wasn’t Jesus, we missed it. And we’re steering the upcoming generation further off course. We live in a culture where material things like income, the size of our home, the kind of car we drive etc determine how successful the world views us as, but we serve a God who determines our success based on our obedience to what He has called us. It’s not about how much He gave us but rather what we did with it that counts.

It is said that people aspire to the things we celebrate, and it’s true, so what are we celebrating?

Most of us would be more impressed to be in the presence of Taylor Swift than the church intercessor, and we wonder why no one volunteers to pray aloud at church but everyone wants to be on the praise team. We have more people that want to give a word than want to be in the Word. When we give more honor to those on the stage than those in the prayer closet, we cultivate image over character.

We cannot complain about a shallow generation when we are the ones who have built their house on sinking sand.