Nurturing a Strong Identity and Faith through Creativity
Discover the profound connection between creativity and our spiritual identity as we explore how to nurture creativity in our children!
Creativity is not just a skill for a special few but a fundamental trait rooted in being made in God's image. Through engaging stories, including the origins of Play-Doh, we learn how grit and belief in one's creative abilities can lead to remarkable outcomes.
As parents, it's crucial to encourage our children to embrace their creative impulses, whether through art, music, or imaginative play, to affirm their God-given characteristics. Join us as we unpack the importance of fostering a creative mindset in our kids, ensuring they grow into empowered individuals ready to contribute their unique gifts to the world.
Takeaways:
- Creativity is a spiritual trait that reflects our divine design and image.
- Encouraging creativity in children helps them grow into empowered adults.
- There are many forms of creativity beyond arts and crafts that should be nurtured.
- Parents should provide diverse creative activities to help children discover their unique talents.
- Limiting creativity to specific skills can harm a child's self-perception and potential.
- Creativity is essential for experiencing and revealing God's character in our lives.
Empower yourself and your family to engage fully in God’s grand story. Subscribe to Hi(Impact) at Stephanie Presents for insights, encouragement, and practical resources!
Book Stephanie to speak to your women, parents, Christian educators, and students.
#parenting
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#bible
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#biblestudy
#christianfaith
#christianfamilies
#christianparenting
#lifeskey3
#creativity
#raisingcreativekids
#nurturingcreativity
#artsandcrafts
Transcript
What do the first five words in the Bible, Plato coloring books, have in common?
Speaker A:And what connection do these have to teaching your kids to love the Lord their God, with all their heart, soul, mind and strength?
Speaker A:Stay tuned.
Speaker A:We're going to talk about this today.
Speaker B:If your desire is to become spiritually stronger, emotionally healthier, and relationally smarter, you're at the right place.
Speaker B:Speaker and writer Stephanie Smith inspires and equips you to achieve these three key aims.
Speaker B:If you are a parent, you also learn how to raise empowered kids ready for adulthood?
Speaker B:Let's get started.
Speaker A:Recently I had the great privilege of having four of my grandchildren, ages four and below, spend a couple of days with me, and one of the things that we did was to make our own modeling clay.
Speaker A:I don't want to say play dough because that's a registered trademark, but it was similar to play doh in the way that it can be shaped and formed and, given enough time, can even harden.
Speaker A:We also did a variety of arts and crafts projects and coloring books and glue and leaves because it is autumn here in the midwest and the kids just enjoyed it.
Speaker A:One of the things that I learned, and of course this was something that I already knew, but it was a good reminder, is that creativity for toddlers is often a whole lot more about the journey than the final product, especially when they decide to kind of go off on their own and incorporate their own ideas rather than following the pattern.
Speaker A:And you know what?
Speaker A:That is absolutely okay.
Speaker A:At this point, you may be wondering if you have tuned in to a podcast about arts and crafts for kids.
Speaker A:And the answer is no.
Speaker A:This is the Life's key three podcast where on Thursday episodes, I really target helping parents raise kids who are ready for adulthood.
Speaker A:And specifically, over these last several weeks, we have been looking at how do we teach our kids to adopt a mentality, a framework for life that is based on the two great commandments, to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.
Speaker A:And we've been looking at appetites and the different appetites that God has built into us, and one of those is the appetite to create.
Speaker A:And sadly, it becomes all too common for kids to get older and to lose this appetite.
Speaker A:But the reality is it's not a natural process for people to lose the appetite for creativity.
Speaker A:What happens is they have experiences that tell them creativity looks like this, and then they're given a very narrow definition.
Speaker A:They have their creative efforts mocked or ignored or belittled or just not made to terribly important, and they pick up very quickly the message that creativity is for a few select people in a few certain genres.
Speaker A:And if they don't happen to fit into those categories, well, then they're nothing creative.
Speaker A:And that is baloney, my friends.
Speaker A:And not only is that just nonsense, it actually has a spiritual connection to part of our design.
Speaker A:Now, in the beginning of today's episode, I mentioned the connection between Plato and the first five words in the Old Testament, in the Bible, genesis one, one, and arts and crafts.
Speaker A:But I want us to be able to think of arts and crafts in a broader capacity of creativity, not just in this narrow definition of sitting down with paint or colors or art brushes, or even for, as older people, sometimes we think of creativity as, oh, that's the person who can decorate their house really well, or that's the person who's really good at photography or these other types of particular areas.
Speaker A:Maybe they're good at knitting or crocheting or quilting, but creativity is so much bigger than that.
Speaker A:So let's unpack this connection between Plato in Genesis one one and creativity.
Speaker A:You know, Plato came about through a very interesting chain of events that occurred over a period of time.
Speaker A:And the one common factor, well, actually, I should say the two common factors in what eventually became the play doh that we know and love today was grit and creativity.
Speaker A: You see, in the: Speaker A:There was a 21 year old Cleo McVicker, who was responsible for selling off the remainder of the company's assets, which would just close the business forever.
Speaker A:However, Clio manages to sell the remaining products and makes a profit keeping kuttle afloat.
Speaker A:But just barely.
Speaker A:Well, about ten years later, after continuing to make powdered hand soap, Cleo was asked by representatives of the Kroger grocery store chain if he could provide wallpaper cleaner.
Speaker A:You see, wallpaper was used in many homes at that period of time.
Speaker A:It was a very popular decorating product, and this was a time when a lot of homes, perhaps probably the majority of homes here in the United States, were heated by coal, and this caused soot to accumulate on the wallpaper.
Speaker A:And it couldn't just be washed off with regular soap and water.
Speaker A:And Cleo, who is determined and creative, says, of course they can, and promises to deliver 15,000 cases by a set date.
Speaker A:If they didn't come through, they would have to pay a steep penalty, which was money they didn't have.
Speaker A:The problem here is that Kutul didn't make wallpaper cleaner.
Speaker A:They made it.
Speaker A:They made powdered hand soap.
Speaker A:He didn't even know how to make wallpaper cleaner.
Speaker A:But trusting in their creativity, that commitment was made.
Speaker A:Cleo's brother Noah got busy and figured out a way to make the cleaner.
Speaker A:For another decade, the company thrived selling wallpaper cleaner.
Speaker A:But then there was this little thing that began to change in the way that homes were heated.
Speaker A:And instead of coal fired heaters, they began to be fired by oil and gas.
Speaker A:And you know what was no longer so much of an issue?
Speaker A:Soot on wallpaper.
Speaker A:The demand for cleaner dropped.
Speaker A:And as the final death toll in all of this vinyl wallpaper enters the scene and the cleaner becomes obsolete.
Speaker A:What to do now?
Speaker A:Well, there was another pretty creative and determined family member, and this was a woman who operated a nursery school, and she needed some cheap materials for the kids to have an activity.
Speaker A:So she got the wallpaper cleaner a paste, and experimented with it for her students.
Speaker A:And you know what?
Speaker A:The kids loved it.
Speaker A:Well, it ended up that couture removed the detergent in the cleaner, added coloring, an almond scent, and voila.
Speaker A:Play Doh was born.
Speaker A:And you can still find it covering shelves today.
Speaker A:It might be easy to hear that story and think, oh, well, you know, desperate times call for desperate measures.
Speaker A:And when people have to come up with something, they can.
Speaker A:But that's not really the case, because there are plenty of people in desperate situations who don't pull out a comeback.
Speaker A:You see, it's not enough to just have grit.
Speaker A:A person needs to have a belief in their ability to create.
Speaker A:And this takes us to Genesis one.
Speaker A:One.
Speaker A:Do you know?
Speaker A:The very first trait that God chooses to reveal about himself is not that he is love.
Speaker A:It is not that he is powerful.
Speaker A:It is not that he is omnipotent.
Speaker A:It is not that he operates outside the bounds of time and space.
Speaker A:The very first trait that God reveals to us about himself is in Genesis one.
Speaker A:One.
Speaker A:When it says, in the beginning, God created.
Speaker A:The very first verb in the Bible is the word created.
Speaker A:Now, this might seem like, yeah, no big deal, but here's the thing.
Speaker A:Later on, as we read through those first couple of chapters of Genesis, we read that God created Mandev and woman.
Speaker A:And not just that he created them, but specifically, he created us.
Speaker A:In his image, we share so many of God's traits.
Speaker A:We echo his design in a multitude of ways.
Speaker A:Now, that does not mean we are his clones in his image does not mean that he duplicated himself in every possible way.
Speaker A:It means that we share traits.
Speaker A:We share capacities in a limited quantity.
Speaker A:And because we are made in his image, we are also creative human beings.
Speaker A:That's right.
Speaker A:I'm talking to you out there.
Speaker A:The person there who says, oh, I'm not creative.
Speaker A:Who is in a committee meeting, and somebody brings up the need for help, and your thought is, oh, I can't do that because I'm not creative, creative.
Speaker A:And I want us to begin to challenge a couple of things.
Speaker A:The first is this idea that creativity is only this earthly skill that we somehow need in order to be able to either accomplish something with our career or to just live a little bit more of an enjoyable life.
Speaker A:Creativity is, at its heart, a spiritual trait.
Speaker A:It is not just something that exists for, for survival reasons.
Speaker A:It is a trait that is hardwired into us, and we ignore it or diminish it at our peril.
Speaker A:When we downplay or diminish our creativity, we will absolutely miss opportunities to know, to experience, and to reveal God's character and his goodness.
Speaker A:The second thing I want us to start challenging our mindset about with creativity is how we define it.
Speaker A:You know, we tend to think of, oh, if someone can paint a beautiful picture, or if someone can compose a song, or they can decorate a house, oh, those are the people who are creative.
Speaker A:But you know what?
Speaker A:You can fix a car engine, and that can take an awful lot of creativity.
Speaker A:Baking a delicious cake, choreographing a dance, designing a bridge, writing a book, inventing a new medical tool or procedure, or just tweaking one that can make a difference in the quality of someone's life.
Speaker A:All of these are, are aspects of the creative ability that God has given to us.
Speaker A:You should never again allow the words, oh, I'm not creative come out of your mouth, because that's the same as saying, oh, I'm not made in God's image.
Speaker A:Oh, really?
Speaker A:You want to talk to God about that?
Speaker A:Rather, it's a matter of saying, how are we creative?
Speaker A:How can we grow and multiply our creative capacities?
Speaker A:And as parents, this is something that is so important for us as we are raising our kids.
Speaker A:And it's not just about play doh and coloring books and crafts.
Speaker A:When our kids are young, it begins there.
Speaker A:Encourage your kids, boys and girls, to try out all kinds of activities.
Speaker A:Give them crayons.
Speaker A:Give them chalk, give them play doh.
Speaker A:Make your own version of modeling clay.
Speaker A:Give them music lessons.
Speaker A:Take them to concerts.
Speaker A:Introduce them to different types of art.
Speaker A:Let them design with, with toys where they can build things.
Speaker A:Give them cardboard boxes and, and rolls of paper and tape.
Speaker A:So that they can construct their forts or their towers or whatever it is that they want to build.
Speaker A:There is something more than just filling time and keeping them occupied.
Speaker A:You see, when you create these opportunities for them to create, you are reinforcing a God given characteristic within them.
Speaker A:You are affirming a godly trait within them.
Speaker A:Have you ever considered that evil never creates anything?
Speaker A:That's right.
Speaker A:It doesn't create anything.
Speaker A:All evil can do is to attempt to mar, to diminish, to destroy, and to distract from what God has created.
Speaker A:And so the aspect of creativity within us is something that is a powerful way that we show up the character and the presence and the existence of God.
Speaker A:When our kids hear us making comments about how we're not creative, or we limit creativity to these very narrow definitions, it has a powerful impact in how they will see themselves.
Speaker A:And they will begin to see themselves as not being creative.
Speaker A:And again, they will miss opportunities to explore in different areas of life.
Speaker A:They will begin to self limit themselves.
Speaker A:These are self limiting lies that we can pass on to our kids, even though we don't intend to do them any harm.
Speaker A:We can inadvertently do this when we characterize ourselves as not being creative, or we relegate creativity to only certain people.
Speaker A:If you have more than one kid, this is especially important that you don't label one of them or a couple of them or whatever is, oh, they're my creative kid, and then you leave the other one or the other one's out.
Speaker A:Kids are very attuned to what parents say about them, and they can hear something one time, and it can have a profound impact on the identity that they create for themselves.
Speaker A:Now, as a Christian, you've probably heard of a man called Moses, but I'm guessing that the names Bezalel and Oliab might not be so familiar to you.
Speaker A:And yet these two men qualified for mention in the Bible by name.
Speaker A:Why?
Speaker A:Because they were creative, skilled craftsmen.
Speaker A:In Exodus, chapter 35, in verses 30 through 36, chapter 36, one, it tells us about these people, and Moses singles them out, and he says about them, he referring to God.
Speaker A:The Lord has filled them with the spirit of God, with skill, with intelligence, with knowledge, and with all craftsmanship, to devise artistic designs, to work in gold and silver and bronze, in cutting stones, for setting and in carving wood, for work in every skilled craft.
Speaker A:He, again referring to God, has filled them with skill to do every sort of work done by an engraver or by a designer, or by an embroiderer in blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine, twisted linen or by a weaver, by any sort of workman or skilled designer.
Speaker A:Bezalel and Oliab and every craftsman in whom the Lord has put skill and intelligence to know how to do any work in the construction of the sanctuary shall work in accordance with all that the Lord commanded.
Speaker A:I mean, these two men were like a master carpenter, a fashion stylist, an award winning architect, and a jewelry designer all rolled into one.
Speaker A:And they hadn't become skilled because God had just zapped them one day with all of this knowledge and ability.
Speaker A:They had honed their crafts.
Speaker A:They had grown what God seeded into them.
Speaker A:And when the time came that the nation of Israel needed a tabernacle, these men were singled out by name, and their skills were listed with specific detail.
Speaker A:And this is an example to us of God saying, you know, it's not just Moses.
Speaker A:It wasn't just Moses, the leader, who was worth singling out.
Speaker A:He wasn't the one who went in and built the tabernacle.
Speaker A:There were people that needed to contribute their creativity to this incredible place.
Speaker A:And you know what?
Speaker A:When this assignment to build a tabernacle was completed, God's presence entered into this man made place with such power that even Moses, the man that God had passed by on Mount Sinai, couldn't even enter.
Speaker A:We don't know what skills of creativity that we or our children may someday be divinely appointed to use in service of the kingdom of God.
Speaker A:So, parents, as you are raising your kids, it doesn't matter what age they are, whether they are two and they are fascinated with glue and scissors and glitter, or they are twelve or they are 18, affirm in them that because they're made in God's image, they are creative people.
Speaker A:And you can't say that to them and then say something different about yourself.
Speaker A:And then, out of that, help them to discover where they can grow in their creative capacities.
Speaker A:Don't limit them to say, oh, well, they're just really good at music, and then that's it.
Speaker A:Or to say, oh, well, they're really creative when it comes to building something, and then that's it.
Speaker A:We see throughout history, and we have this example right here in scripture, people can be multi talented.
Speaker A:And it's sad that in our modern age, that when specialization entered our economy in ways that it had never done before historically, that we became so singularly focused in terms of thinking that people have capacities in these very narrow areas.
Speaker A:And we tend to think of more renaissance kind of people as being the outliers.
Speaker A:It doesn't have to be that way.
Speaker A:We can absolutely turn things around.
Speaker A:So if you are in that stage of life with little ones where, yeah, it's the scissors and the crayons and the coloring books and the cardboard and the tape and the colors or the designs or pictures or whatever that you're looking at and you are hoping that they're going to explain to you what they have built or drawn because you don't know.
Speaker A:You can't figure it out for the life of you understand that you're not just filling their time, you are actually affirming a God like trait that he has given to us.
Speaker A:And if they are older, don't let them start thinking or living without creative pursuits in their life.
Speaker A:Because again, when we downplay or diminish our creativity, we will miss opportunities to know and to reveal God's goodness.
Speaker A:And we definitely don't want that for us.
Speaker A:And we don't want that for our kids.
Speaker A:Hey, if you haven't already, make sure to go to the website stephaniepresents.com and sign up for my weekly newsletter, high impact.
Speaker A:You are going to have encouragement and you are also going to have resources that I recommend that are going to help you in your journey as an individual and as a parenthood and then share this podcast with a friend.
Speaker A:You know, it's always better when we have somebody else who's kind of attuned to what we're studying or listening to or learning about.
Speaker A:And we have somebody that we can say, hey, what you think about that?
Speaker A:And to be able to discuss something.
Speaker A:And you might even decide that there are some things that you hear in this podcast that you you disagree with, but at least have a thoughtful conversation with it with somebody.
Speaker A:Or you can talk about it and say, how can we apply that in our particular lives and look to other people for their creativity in application as well.
Speaker A:All right, my friend, that's going to wrap us up for today.
Speaker A:Remember this, because it's absolutely true.
Speaker A:You have an impact that is immeasurable, eternal and irreplaceable.
Speaker A:I'll see you next time.
Speaker B:Thank you for listening.
Speaker B:Visit the website stephaniepresents.com and sign up for high impact to join the mission of building spiritually strong, emotionally healthy, and relationally smart women and families.
Speaker B:You can also book Stephanie to speak at your event and check out additional resources.
Speaker B:Together, we can invite and equip generations to engage fully in God's grand story.
