I am delighted to have Shelia Erwin guest-posting here on the blog today. She is the mama of Jon and Andy Erwin, otherwise known as the Erwin Brothers, directors of movies such as Woodlawn, Moms Night Out, and I Can Only Imagine. Shelia is coming on the podcast this Wednesday to talk about her new book, “Raising Up Dreamers: Find and Grow Your Child’s God-Given Talents”, which releases next week! In the meantime, may these words of Shelia’s encourage and inspire you!
~~~~
I have often been asked what I thought when Andy, then sixteen, and Jon, then twelve, announced, “We think God wants us to make movies someday.”
I think one word would describe how I felt that day—delight. From that first day on, I truly believed that God had called my sons to create movies, and that somehow He would make it happen. And I also believed that He had called me, as a mom, to be an important part of that process. You see, I’ve lived most of my life with a man (my husband) who says, “Dream big, dream amazing, dream impossible, because life with Jesus is a great adventure.” God has used my husband, Hank, to teach me to live my great adventure and pass that on to our sons.
In this day and age, we moms are told that what we do is not important. We start to feel like failures; we feel weary and worn-out, frustrated and unfulfilled, guilty and shamed, jaded and exasperated, inadequate and incapable—just bad moms. At the same time, we’re also told that we are not doing our part in contributing to society.
The Importance of Motherhood
I wrote Raising Up Dreamers to share my journey—my adventure of being the mom to two extremely creative men—and to encourage other moms in their journeys. Moms, what you are doing—whether you’re a mom working outside your home, a stay-at-home mom, or a homeschool mom—is important. Investing your life in the lives of your children is always worthwhile. At the end of Moms’ Night Out, the character Sean (played by actor Sean Astin) says, “What you do is important. . . . The hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world.” This quote is actually from a poem by William Ross Wallace in which he praises motherhood as the “preeminent force for change in the world.”
God’s Encouraging Word
Two words that are so often found in Scripture have helped me with my adventure of raising up dreamers. The phrase “but God” shows us who God is and what He has done and will do for us. As we live and walk through this life, the “but God” moments in our walk are often a change of direction or a divine intervention. My life has been filled with many “but God” times that have truly led me to trust and have faith in Jesus Christ. My battle cry in the journey of raising up dreamers truly became “not I” (Mom) “but God” (Christ).
As moms, we can easily become discouraged as we wear many hats—especially those of us who have highly creative children. Through my stories of raising two successful filmmakers using biblical principles, which have given them the tools for the work God has called them to, I want to encourage you to cultivate your children’s gifts and help them reach their dreams—no matter how impossible they may seem.
As a Christian mom, my desire was that my children would follow Christ with their whole hearts, no matter what that looked like. I did not set out to create filmmakers. I just wanted to disciple my children to be personal followers of Jesus.
Important Reminders
I often had to remind myself that their dreams were not my calling or dream. It has been amazing to watch God unfold His plan. He put dreams in the hearts of my sons (and it wasn’t even the same dream in both of their hearts), and step by wonderful step He led, directed, and fulfilled His plan. It never occurred to me that one day my sons would found a studio dedicated to making Christian movies. My dreams were small. I just believed that someday, in some way, my sons would make a movie. But God knew all along, and He had gone before them and made the path straight.
At the first world premiere of our sons’ movie, Hank and I were thrilled that we were seeing their dreams come true. That they were doing what God had called and gifted them to do. All of that would be empty if they were not who God wanted them to be. My answer to this question would not be any different if the what were different.
God’s plans are so much bigger than our dreams. Max Lucado says it so well: “We’re thinking, Preserve the body; He’s thinking, Save the soul. We dream of a pay raise. He dreams of raising the dead. . . . We rejoice at our successes. He rejoices at our confessions. We show our children the Nike star with the million-dollar smile and say, ‘Be like Mike.’ God points to the crucified carpenter with bloody lips and a torn side and says, ‘Be like Christ.’”
I wonder if Billy Graham’s mom ever thought that her son would reach the world with the message of salvation through Christ. You see, my real dream, joy, and delight is not my sons’ success but the fact that right now in other countries people who will never darken the door of a church are watching October Baby, Woodlawn, I Can Only Imagine, and I Still Believe in their own languages. They are hearing the gospel through films that my sons gave years of their life to make. It was a task that they and their families were willing to make sacrifices for that no one will ever know about, except Jesus. Their little dreams long ago were infused, filled, and changed into a bigger dream—that of reaching the world with the gospel of Christ through film. Who knows what else God has in store for them?
We have to be careful not to try to live our life through our children. We don’t want to force them to fulfill our dreams. The way to keep this in check is to pray. Pray that your children follow God’s plan for their lives—not your plan and not even their plan. The most important thing to remember is that God has a plan for your child’s life. “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith Jehovah, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you hope in your latter end. And ye shall call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:11-13, ASV). You do not know what that plan is. His plan is often a progressive plan where he only shows us a little bit at a time. In Psalm 119:105 we are told, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” If you have ever walked in the dark with a flashlight, you can understand this. The flashlight only gives us enough light for the next few steps.
Only God and then your child can know what that dream or plan is. But even if God lets you in on it, your role is praying. Your children’s calling is between them and their Lord. I prayed a lot, and you can too.
Dreams Do Come True
Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto Him be the glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.
Shelia Erwin has been blessed to mentor many women one-on-one, has served as a women’s ministry director at her local church, speaks at retreats, and leads group Bible studies locally and across the country. She and her husband, Hank, formed SAV America Ministries, through which they developed and taught The Christ-Centered Home Seminar Curriculum for many years. Their sons founded Erwin Brothers Entertainment and became the award-winning filmmakers of five major motion pictures: I Still Believe, October Baby, Moms’ Night Out, Woodlawn, and I Can Only Imagine. Her brand new book, Raising Up Dreamers, releases this month!
