As a parent, you want to see many of the above things happen in the lives of your children. You want to see them achieve their potential, chase after their dreams, and for them to be happy. But beyond that, you want them to find the joy and freedom of living under the lordship of Jesus so that their potential, their dreams, and their happiness is the most true and the most real it can be. 

“Just follow your heart.”

It’s the stuff that Disney movies are made of. It’s about actualizing yourself and your potential; it’s about living your dreams; it’s about living happily ever after. It’s also a terrible piece of advice.

This is one of the hard parts about being a parent. As a parent, you want to see many of the above things happen in the lives of your children. You want to see them achieve their potential, chase after their dreams, and for them to be happy. But beyond that, you want them to find the joy and freedom of living under the lordship of Jesus so that their potential, their dreams, and their happiness is the most true and the most real it can be. If that’s true, then we have to tell our own souls, and somehow navigate the waters of teaching our children, that we should not base our decisions in life on following our hearts. Here are three reasons why:

1. Your heart won’t tell you the truth.

I, like you probably are, am a master at self-deception. I can trick myself into thinking the best of myself in virtually any situation. The prophet was onto something when he said, “The heart is more deceitful than anything else, and incurable–who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:6). If it’s happened once, it’s happened a thousand times to me. I do something, something (dare I say) good for someone else, and then in retrospect find that I didn’t really do that thing for them, but for myself. It was so that others would see me doing it. It was to garner praise from the person I was helping. It was to impressively display my aptitude or compassion for another. It happens all the time. And every time it happens, I’m reminded of something that’s as true as it is disturbing.

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