Pastors, just like real people, have trade journals and magazines, which of course, are filled with advertisments and articles intended to make us better at what we do.  A quick purusal of these tools reveals that a recurring theme, in both articles and ads alike, is how important it is to make an IMPACT for Christ.  "We're going to impact the world by planting one thousand churches."  "How to impact your neighborhood with the gospel."  "The impact factor!"  "Impact your city for Jesus!!"  "Real leaders make an impact!!" 

I finally decided to look up the word in order to see what it really means.  I discovered that the word, while occassionally used with positive connotation, is largely negative and destructive.  It means, 

My last blog was inspired by this article I read in the BBC News Magazine about a young boy who knew, at age 9, that he would someday save lives. He went on to become a leading medical scientist whose research has, in fact, saved lives. 

From this article, I picked up a few tidbits of wisdom about how to encourage young kids to go after their dreams. Here are a few nuggets of gold I plan to put into practice with the young people in my own life:

1) Kids are thinking about the future.  "Thousands of children wrote to the programme every week," said the article, and I realized that pretty much every child I know has an answer to "what do you want to be when you grow up?" Two of my nephews want to be pirates. One is already an accomplished artist. My pastor's youngest son already knows he wants to be a pastor. Another friend's elementary schooler wants to be a veterinarian. The list goes on.