Can we train young creatives to break limiting beliefs? (also for adults)

Are the things you say to yourself other people’s beliefs and criticism? Here’s a story of me trying to break free of the limiting beliefs from my past.

When the Word comes alive

This morning I took a minute to read in the Bible and almost immediately a verse stood out to me.

A verse I’ve heard all my life . My mother — an energetic yet strict Sunday school leader when I was young — used to say it all the time as one of the key verses about the importance of kids ministry over just “watching the kids during service”.

Proverbs 22:6

Teach a child it’s way while it’s young and when it’s grown up it won’t depart from it

That’s how I remember it in my head.

Growing up as “a loved yet misunderstood” creative and musical child among logical-technical people, this verse used to mean:

Teach a child to have a relationship with Jesus as friend and savior, teach Christian morals and an attitude to always work hard and you’ll get a good adult that fits well into your church

The meaning behind the words

Yet, as I was reading Proverbs 22:6 in The Amplified Bible (a type of translation that doesn’t exist in my German native language) something dawned on me about creativity, talents and seeing yourself the way God sees you — not just how people told you to see yourself.

Train up a child in the way he should go [and in keeping with his individual gift or bent], and when he is old he will not depart from it.

Proverbs 22:6 (AMP)

Discovering a limiting belief

I suddenly saw how I have held on to limiting beliefs about myself and my creativity all the way to today, because I was taught it as a child/ youth.

Here it is:

Your true creative passions and skills are just hobbies, you have to focus on something more acceptable to make a living.

Today I work with video/ media production and teaching that to entrepreneurs, (virtual) assistants, creatives and ministries — that’s how I make money.

My dream of traveling, speaking about restoring creativity and playful expression in people’s lives and having “wild worship” sessions at churches is just a dream.

How I was trained in the wrong way

I knew I wanted to play drums and be part of a music-ministry when I was 9 years old. At 11 I started to sneak into the church and taught myself the sound equipment in order to record my own imaginary radio show. At 12 I started filming events. At 14 I attended the first of many design-video-web-computer courses at a local YWAM University of the Nations location.

I knew that creativity, music, worship, speaking, ministry — in an individual and evolving mix — should be what I do for a living.

Yet nobody ever encouraged me to go in that direction.

In fact I remember the many discussions with family, youth/church leaders, even non-believers who all said to just give up on my dreams, treat all of that as a hobby and get a “normal job” (preferably in the technical-logical field) — and wait for someone to “discover your talents” and cast you to join a band. I remember those exact words of my aunt, who works in an atomic research facility and dances rock and roll at competitions as a hobby, not as a career. (Which was “wild and ungodly” in my Christian family’s eyes, but I liked it and her)

Fighting for any kind of acceptance

It was also enough of a fight just to, at the very least, spent time to work with creative design/web/video projects and slowly build a little career in that field…

Well, understandably I eventually grew out of that limiting mindset and even moved to another country to attend a youth work / music missions school. (That’s a story for another time)

Breaking limiting beliefs

What I learned today is that I need to stop treating my own creativity based on the remaining limited thoughts that I was taught as a child: As merely a side project/ hobby.

I want to travel, speak about such issues, be creative in multiple ways, minister to people, restore “broken” creatives like me and worship God in various wild ways — anyone ready to experience dance-edm-DJ-worship? (I can be booked for all of this, but it’s not just a hobby, you have to pay my fees/take up an offering)

Training in the right way

As Proverbs 22:6 says and should have been practiced:

To train a child in the way it should go doesn’t just mean to create conformed, Bible-believers that function well in church and society — but also strengthen individuals to listen to their own inner convictions, individuality and interests that others may not share and let them create their own way. (=“Keeping with their individual gift or bent” while also maturing to function well in life and society)

There is so much strength to be found in this process — and God encourages it in his Word.